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THE COLPORTAGE HBRARY. Vol.1. No. 13. Sept. 1,1895. 

Semi-monthly. 12.25 per annum. Entered at Chicago Post-office as second-class mail matter. 




Gospel Pictures 
^•^o Story Sermons 



D. W. WHITTLE. 




The Bible Institute 

Colportage Association, 

Chicago. 



GOSPEL PICTURES 

AND 

STORY SERMONS 

FOR CHILDREN 



D. W. WHITTLE 



'* He taught them many things by parables " (Mark iv: 2). 




CHICAGO: 

The Bible Institute Colportage Association 
250 LaSalle Avenue, 







COPVmGHTED, ,895,.,KUM,NGH. REVELL60. 



CONTENTS. 



The Poison Sermon, 

The Magnet Sermon, 

The Candle Sermon, 

The Commandments Sermon, Part I 

The Commandments Sermon, Part II 

The Heart Sermon, 



5 
25 
51 
74 
93 
105 



GOSPEL PICTURES 

AND 

STORY SERMONS. 



THE POISON SERMON. 

Children, you often say, " / think, " or, " / am think- 
ing,'' Whereabouts do you think ? In your hands, 
your feet, your stomach or in your head ? " In my 
head," is your answer. Yes; in your head. There 
is, back of your eyes and between your ears, a won- 
derful little room full of think power. It is like a 
little factory where wheels and belts, cogs and pulleys 
are always moving and making all about them move 
with them. There are five ways in which this think 
power may be set in motion. What you feel, by 
something touching your body; what you taste, when 
something is. put into your mouth; what yow smelly 
when you go home from school and your mother is 
baking; what you see, when your father brings you 
home a safety; what you hear, when you wake the 
Fourth of July morning, or when your name is called 
by the teacher for first prize. Now all these ways to 
get the thiitk machinery working might be called 



6 Gospel PicUtrcs and Story Sermons 

" gates ; " and I want now to get into the wonderful 
little room between your ears by what we will call the 
" eye gate'' and " ear gate.'' I w^ant to teach you by 
what you will hear, and by what you will see. So 
please keep your eyes and your ears wide open. 

The first thing I show you will be these two tum- 
blers of pure water. As I pour it from the pitcher to 




the glass, how clear and sparkling, and beautiful it 
looks! As I put it to my lips, how sweet and refresh- 
ing it tastes ! It is just as God made it, a blessing 
and a joy to creation. 

Now turn back in the book, and see upon the first 
page the picture of the fountain of w^ater from the 
rock in the desert. Is it not beautiful to see the water 
pouring down upon the stones, foaming and splashing, 
and sparkling in the sun ! And see, how happy and 
contented the men, women and children, cows and 
sheep all appear to be, as they come and drink of the 
pure, God-given water ! 

Now, my first lesson from the water is this: God 
made it good, but how often man makes it bad. What 
dreadful things men put into water, and how they are 
drugged and made drunken and debased and degraded 
by what they drink ! 



The Poison Sei-mon 7 

Now let us think of what God has taught us in the 
Bible, and see if this is not just the way it is about all 
the sin and suffering there is in this world. God makes 
the water good, and man makes it bad. 

Let us read what God says about how He made man: 
" And God said, Let its make man in our image, after 
our likeness ; ^ ^ ^ So God created man ijt his 
ozvn image, in the image of God created he him ^ ^ 
^ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life ; and man became a living soul. ^ ^ ^ And 
God blessed them, and God said unto them, * -J^- ^ 
Have domijtion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
moveth upon tlie earth. And God saw everything 
that he had made, and, behold, IT WAS very good." 
(Gen. i: 26-27 ^^d Gen. ii: 7, with Gen. i: 28-31.) 
We also read the words of one who had a very 
wonderful think power given him by God, and who 
fully considered all the hard questions that any boy or 
girl will ever consider, and who says of himself: " / 
applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek 
out zvisdom, and the reason of things,'' and he says, 
" Lo, this only have L found, that God hath made man 
upright; but they have sought out many inventions.^^ 
(Eccl. vii: 25 and 29.) 

So God made man good, and he has made himself 
bad. The heart was once pure and clean like this 
tumbler of clear water, but O, what dreadful things 
have entered into it ! Now v/atch me, and you will 



8 



Gospel Pictures and Story Sermon^ 



see how easily I shall make this water bad. I have 
here a bottle of deadly poison, called " corrosive subli- 
mate." Do you see the picture of the label that 
the druggist has put upon it ? 




This is to warn people that there is death in 
the bottle. Sometimes children go to Mamma's closet 
without permission and taste of the medicines. I hope 
you will never do this, for you will very likely be made 
sick if you do. But remember, when you see this 
label on a bottle you must never touch it. I heard a 
sad story the other day from a gray-haired minister, 
w^ho had listened to my " Poison Sermon." " Your 
corrosive sublimate," said he, ^^ revived a sad memory 
of my childhood. My little sister swallowed a mouth- 
ful of it by mistake. The whole scene in my country 
home came before me as you lifted up your bottle. The 
awful pain of the little girl; my mother's terror; 
my father's anxiety as he came running from the field, 
and in less time than I can tell it, had me upon a horse, 
galloping four miles for the doctor; the doctor's 
swift ride back with me, only to see the child die; and 



The Poison Sermon 9 

the laying away of the dear little girl to rest. O, how 
vividly it has all been before me !" 

I was very sorry to have awakened such sad 
memories in the heart of this good man, but I hope the 
repeating of his story may warn parents of the danger 
of leaving poisons within reach of their children, and 
may warn children of the danger of disobeying their 
parents and touching things they are forbidden to 
touch. 

Now, I am going to put some of the poison into 
these two tumblers of water to show to you how sin 
came into the hearts of men, and into the world. 
We will first read the story and some of the com- 
ments on the story from the Bible, and then show you 
the illustration. 

" Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of 
the field which the Lord God had made: and he said 
imto the woman^ Yea^ hath God said^ Ye shall not eat 
of every tree of the garden ? And the woman said unto 
the serpent, We may eat of the frnit of the trees of the 
garden : but of the frnit of the tree which is in the midst 
of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, 
neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said 
7into the woman. Ye shall not surely die : for God doth 
knozv, that iri the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes 
shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good 
and evil. And when the zvoman sazv that the treezvas 
good for food, and that it zvas pleasant to the eyes, a7ta 
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of 
the fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also unto her 
husband with her y and he did eat.'' (Gen. iii: i to 6.) 



lO Gospel Pictures and Stoiy Sermojts 

" But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent 
beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be 
corrupted from the simplicity and purity that is toward 
Christ.'' (II Cor. ix: 2, Rev. Ver.) 

" Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the worlds 
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for 
that all have sinned.'^ (Ro. v: 12.) 

You will see in this story how the woman tempted 
Satan to tempt her, by being away from her husband 
and near the tree, as if she was longing for its fruit, 
and wanted to do that which she had been told not 
to. Is it not strange that we are all just like the 
woman in this } I knew of a little boy who lived near 
Lake Michigan, who was shown by his father the 
poison ivy that grows very profusely in that region. 
The father told him that he was not to touch it 
because it would poison his hands, and get on his face 
and make him sick. *^ Do you think you know the 
plant now, my boy } '* said the father. " Yes, Papa,*' 
was the reply. ^^ Well, go over to that oak tree and 
see if you can pick it out." He went over and called 
out, "Here it is, Papa." "That's right," said his 
father. " Now go over and find some under that tree." 
" Here it is, Papa," said he, as he ran over to another 
tree and saw on the ground the green shiny leaf of 
the little ivy bush. " That is right," said the father. 
" Now you know what it is, remember about it, and 
be careful and not touch it." 

It was only a few days after this that the boy was not 
well, and little red pimples came out all over his hands 



The Poison Sermon 1 1 

and face. "Why," said the father, "this is poison 
ivy ! How in the world did this happen, my boy, after 
Papa warned you about it ? " 

The boy began to cry, and said very pitifully, " Me 
and Willie thought w^e w^ould like to see if it would 
poison us, and so we picked some and rubbed it on,'' 
Could there be anything more like what we read of 
the woman wanting to see if the fruit which God had 
forbidden would kill her ? And so, it seems inevitable 
that every boy and girl wants, O, so much, to do the 
very thing they are forbidden to do; and that Satan 
should still be permitted to come and tempt them to 
do it. This being so, we must be on our guard, and 
not think that because we very much want to do a 
thing, that it is right or best for us to do it. 

I saw a little story the other day that pleased me 
very much indeed. >A mother brought home a package 
of candy for her little girl, and after giving her as 
much as was good for her to eat at one time, put the 
package on an upper shelf in the cup-board, and told 
her she was to have no more that day. The mother 
went off up-stairs, and came back after some time to 
the open door of the room where the candy w^as. 
What did she see but her little girl standing on a 
shelf, with the package of candy opened, and a piece 
of it in her hand ! The mother was about to call out 
to her, but observing that the child waited for a little, 
as if thinking of something, she paused to see what 
she would do. To her great happiness, the little girl 
put back the candy, and climbing down from the shelf 



12 Gospel Pictures aitd Story Sei^nions 

to a chair and from the chair to the floor, she looked 
up with a happy smile, and stamping her foot upon 
the floor, said, " Dere, Dod, I didn't eat it after all ! " 

That was a great victory ! O, that every one of you 
children would think of God when you are tempted to 
sin, and you, too, would have many such victories. 

The best time, however, to fight against Satan is 
when he first suggests an evil thought. It was very 
dangerous for the little girl to have come so near doing 
wrong. It would have been much better if she had 
run right out of the room, saying in her heart, " No, 
no,'' and gone to her play that she might think of 
something else when the desire came to have the 
candy. One of the most useful prayers in the Bible is 
found in Ps. cxix, verse 37: " Turn away mine eyes 
from beholding vanity.'' Always make this prayer 
when an evil thought is suggested by what you are 
looking at, or thinking of, and Satan will not be able 
to go further with you. How certain we are that Eve 
kept looking at the forbidden fruit, and walked all 
around the tree as near as she dared, thinking, " O how 
beautiful it looks! I wonder why ^^ can't have it .? 
I don't see why God made it if it isn't to be eaten. 
I don't believe it would hurt us. He didn't say 
we should not smell of it. I believe I will pull down 
the branch and just take one smell." O, why didn't 
she turn right away and say, " I must not think 
of such things. I do not need this fruit. Our good 
God has given us a hundred other beautiful trees, 
all filled with the most delicious fruit, and ha? 



The Poison Scniion 13 

only forbidden us this one tree. I am sure that there 
must be a good reason for what so good and kind a 
Father has done. I am sure that I ought to just trust 
His word and obey Him, no matter what anybody 
may say. It would be a dreadful sin for me to think 
for one moment that God could tell a lie and deceive 
us about anything. " O, if she had said this and turned 
away. But she did not. And none of her children ever 
said it, everywhere and every time, until Jesus of 
Nazareth came. He said it, and Satan could never 
get Him to say or tliink anything else. 

Now, as we repeat the words: " By one man sin 
entered into the world, and death by sin,'' I will put a 
teaspoonful of the poison into each of these tumblers, 
now half filled with water. 

Death has now entered into the water. I would not 
drink from the tumblers now for anything. And yet 
you see that the water shows no change. You have 
only rny word for it that there is poison there. I 
think you believe me, and that it would be very hard 
for any one to hire you to take a drink of the water. 
Let me read you a verse. " If we receive the testimony 
of "men, the testimony of God is greater. He that 
believeth not God hath made him a liar,'' (I Jno. v: 9 
and 10.) O, that all here would firmly and forever 
believe what God has told them about the sinfulness 
of their hearts. It is because men do not believe 
that the poison of sin is in them that they neglect the 
salvation from sin that God has provided. 

As you take my word, children, about the poison in 



14 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

the tumblers, you must take God's word about sin in 
your hearts. Do not trust to your feehngs or to any 
flattering words from those that love you. " The heart 
is deceitful above all things^ and desperately wicked. 
Who can know it?'' (Jer. xvii: 9.) The only certain 
thing in this world is what God says in the Holy Bible. 
Remember Jesus said, ^^ The words that I speak unto 
you^ they are life^'' (John vi: 63), and, " Every 07ie that 
is of the truth heareth my voice.'' (John xviii: 37.) 

Satan is never so near you as when you are inclined 
to doubt the teachings of God's word as to your hav- 
ing so bad a heart that nothing but the blood of Jesus 
can cleanse it, nothing but the spirit of Jesus can 
make it good. 

Now, I have another illustration for you with the 
tumblers. 

You have believed my word that the poison is there; 
but I will now give you evidence of the truth of my 
word. I have in this other bottle what I will call " a 
poison detective." It is a solution of iodide of potas- 
sium; so compounded, that as I put a teaspoonful 
into these tumblers, it will cause the water to turn to 
a muddy red. I want to show to you how God will 
give you evidence that the poison of sin is in your 
hearts. For this first tumbler, I will use the law. 
We will play that this is a boy who has been a pretty 
good boy, and has not felt his sins. Now a sinner is 
one who has some time disobeyed God. So we will 
repeat the ten commandments of God, and will drop 
in the poison detective as we repeat. Now watch! 



The Poison Sermon 15 

and see if the water turns. If it does, you may know 
I have told you the truth, and that poison is in the 
glass. Also, watch! and think as God's law is 
repeated, how many times you have failed to keep it. 
Remember that every time you have told an untruth; 
every time you have disobeyed your parents; every 
time you have given way to anger and the spirit of 
revenge; every time you have taken from others the 
smallest thing that belonged to them, without their 
knowledge or permission; every time you have in- 
dulged in the spirit of coveting that which belonged to 
others, you have broken God's commandments. 

Oh! how bad the water has become as I have dropped 
in the iodide ! See how red it looks ! Surely this tumb- 
ler is as full of poison as an Q,gg is of meat. As I hold 
it up before you, think of your own hearts: have you 
not remembered many naughty things that you have 
done 1 Do you not see that sin mitst be in your heart, 
or you would never have done these wrong things, or 
had these bad thoughts t 

Now we will take the other tumbler, and show 
another way that God has of proving that our hearts 
are sinful in His sight. Our Lord Jesus says in John 
xvi: 9: " (9/* SIN, because they believe not on me.'' 

So, when we want to find out quickly whether a 
heart is right with God, we tell them of Jesus, the 
Son of God; and after we have pictured forth His 
goodness and love in coming down from heaven to 
teach us of God, to bear our sins in His own body on 
the tree; to be our Redeemer and Saviour, that we, 




'God be Merciful to Me a Sinner." 



The Poison Sermon 17 

through Him, might receive the Spirit of God; if, after 
this, they turn away and do not love Him, and beheve 
that He teaches truth-, they show that their hearts are 
selfish and sinful, just as truly as this water now shows 
that it is full of poison, as I put the teaspoortful of iodide, 
all at once, into the tumbler. So we have an illustra- 
tion of one convicted by the law; and of another 
convicted by the gospel. Are there not many of you 
convicted by both .the law and the gospel } The law 
convicts you, for you have not kept it; the gospel con- 
victs you, for you have not believed upon Jesus as 
your Saviour. O, that every one of you might feel as 
the man did, of whom Jesus has told us in Luke xviii: 
13, who was saved by crying out before the slain lamb 
upon the altar: " God be merciful to me, a sinner.'' 

My next illustration will be made to explain to you 
how Jesus has come to give us clean hearts and deliver 
us from the aw^ful poison of sin. You have seen the 
two tumblers of clear water. You now see them red, 
discolored and disfigured by poison. 




Now, one of these tumblers I cover over with this 
beautiful piece of silk, and the poison is out of sight. 
Let this show to you the folly of the multitude of 
boys and girls, men and women, who refuse to think 



1 8 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

of their sinful condition, but give themselves up to the 
pleasures of the world, living godless, prayerless lives. 
Our Lord Jesus says of such — ^^ This is the condem- 
nation, that light is come into the zuorld, and men loved 
darkness raJher than light, because their deeds zvere 
evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, 
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should 
be reproved.'' (John iii: 19, 20.) Children, the 
great temptation is to hide when we have done 
wrong. This is the reason children tell lies. 
They want to hide from the light. This is the reason 
that so many refuse to become Christians. They do 
not want to confess their sins. This temptation you 
will all have to meet. May God give you grace to 
overcome it. It is said in the Bible: " He that cov- 
ereth his sins shall not prosper ; but zvhoso confesseth 
and forsaketJi them shall have mercy.'' (Prov. xxviii: 
13.) There were two things that King David as a 
man of God did not hide. He did not hide his sins 
from God (Ps. xxxii: 5), and he did not hide God's 
righteousness from men (Ps. xl: 10). It is not possi- 
ble for God to save us if, when He is calling us, we run 
away and hide. It does not take away the poison 
from the tumbler to cover it over. And it does not 
take away sin by refusing to think about it and trying 
to make believe that it is not there. O, how sorry I 
am to have to leave this tumbler covered over and to 
know that it must remain without cleansing, when the 
means for cleansing are so close at hand ! This is the 
way our blessed Lord Jesus feels toward those who 



The Poison Sermo7t 19 

hide from Him, when He has come with power to for- 
give them, and pity to heal and cleanse them from 
every stain. We can hear Him saying sadly to some 
who are here today, " Ye zvill not come to me that ye 
might have life,'' (Jno. v: 40.) 

The tumbler I now hold in my hand represents, I 
trust, many who are here to-day, who are willing to 
confess that their hearts are sinful, and who want 
them cleansed, and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ 
has power and grace to cleanse them. Now from the 
same bottle, used to discover sin, I propose to take 
that which shall put away the sin. A teaspoonful of 
this solution, put into the tumbler where there is 
poison, discolors it: another teaspoonful clears away 
the color, and makes the water clean and white again. 
Is not this a remarkable illustration of just what the 
Bib4e does in my heart \ . I read in the Bible God's 
holy law, and discover that my heart is sinful and 
bad. I read more of the Bible, and find how Jesus 
came to die for my sins, and opening my heart for 
Him to come in to be my Saviour, I find out God's 
way of making my heart clean and delivering me from 
sin. So, as a good old Christian woman said, " O, 
how I love my Bible ! It wounded me, and' it healed 
me; it convicted me of sin, and it showed me my 
Saviour; it was the guide of my youth, and it is now the 
comfort of my old age." 

Children, God's book is a book of love. You must 
never be afraid of the Bible; but always be afraid of 
doing anything that the Bible condemns. When 



20 " Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

people are afraid of the Bible, it shows that they are 
unwilling to give up what they know is wrong. 

Now, just as we repeated the commandments and 
dropped in the iodide until the water was red, we will 
repeat the gospel and drop in the iodide until we see 
the water made clear. 

" For God so loved the world, that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him, 
shoitld not peinsh, but have everlasting life.'' (Jno. 
iii: i6.) 

There is truth enough in that verse to do all the 
work; and hundreds of thousands of hearts have 
received Jesus through its teaching, and been made 
clean. 

As many, however, have to be taken from verse to 
verse before the light comes, and they are enabled to 
trust Jesus, I will add a fewV)ther verses, before put- 
ting into the tumbler all of the iodide. I want you to 
notice, however, that every drop I put in, has its 
effect upon the poison, and clears away a little of the 
color. So, when souls are honestly seeking after 
light, every verse they read and receive into their hearts 
helps them forward. Here is a verse that seems 
specially appropriate to our red tumbler: '' Come 
now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: 
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white 
as snow ; though they be red like, crimson, they shall be 
as zvooW (Isa. i: i8.) I know of a little girl who 
came to her mamma one day, and said, " Oh, 
Mamma, I don't want it here ! please. Mamma, take 



The Poison Sermon 2i 

it away." " What is it that you don't want there ? " 
said her mamma. ^' I don't want the naughty in my 
heart, Mamma, it makes me feel bad." "Well," 
said the good mother, " you must go to your room and 
kneel down and ask the Lord Jesus to take it away. 
Mamma can not do it. Only Jesus can make the 
heart good." The little girl came back in a few 
minutes with a very happy face, and said, " It is all 
gone, Mamma. I asked Jesus, and He has taken it 
all away." Dear little child ! of course, Jesus did it. 
He has promised to do it for any child that comes and 
asks Him, and for any one that comes and asks Him 
as a child. 

Here is another beautiful verse by which a great 
many have received Jesus-: " Come unto Me, all ye 
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give yon 
rest,'' (Matt, xi: 28.) To come to Jesus is to be 
willing to take Him as my Saviour, and let him do as 
He pleases with me, cleansing away my sins, and 
making me God's child. 

If one here to-day feels willing in their heart to 
come, you can be sure right nozv that He forgives 
you, and that He wants y^u above all things, to know 
and believe it, and to enter into rest. 

The last text we will use is found in I John, first 
chapter, the 9th and part of the 7th verse: " If zve 
confess our sins, he is fait! fill and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all urunghteousness. The 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleaiiseth us from all 
sin.'' 



22 Gospel Pictures and Stoiy Sermons 

Now see the change ! as I put in all of the iodide, 
and stir up the water that it may come in contact w^ith, 
and dissolve the poison, see how the water becomes 
clear again ! Perhaps you may see, as I hold the 
glass to the light, some of the red sediment away down 
in the side of the tumbler, but as I scrape away with 
my spoon and bring the iodide into closer contact 
with it, it disappears. So, as we receive the spirit of 
Jesus, we shall be daily made aware of places in our 
hearts that need cleansing, and as we read and obey 
His words, we shall grow in grace, and find deliver- 
ance from the power of sin, and become cleaner and 
cleaner in heart and life. " Tlie blood of Jesus Christ 
His Son cleans eth its from all sin.'' Let this be care- 
fully remembered as our closing text. It is by what 
our precious Lord Jesus has done and is doing for us, 
and not by what we have done or are doing for Him, 
that we are saved. When we accept Him as our Sav- 
iour, and are willing to confess His name, our sins are 
forgiven us and blotted out of God's book, because 
Jesus has borne the penalty of sin. As we every day 
believe that we are forgiven and cleansed for Jesus' 
sake, God's Spirit dwells in our hearts to keep us from 
the power of sin, and in the love of God. By and 
bye, if Jesus tarry, our souls shall leave this world and 
be in Heaven with Jesus. Then, we shall never have 
any more feeling of sin, and shall never do anything 
wrong, or think anything wrong. Then we shall see 
how true and faithful was this word of gospel truth, 



The Pots 071 Sermon 23 

" The blood of Jesus Christ His So?i cleanseth us 
from all sin.'' 

Now, in contrast to this tumbler with its contents 




made clear, look, as I take the other tumbler out 
from under its covering, upon its poison-stained con- 
tents. The clear one I hold in my right hand, the 
other in my left. Children, you must all be like one 
or the other of these two. Some of you may try to 
cover your sins. Let all such remember that when 
they die, their covering will be taken away, and their 
sinful souls appear before God,, just as I have taken 
this poison stained glass from under the cloth. 

We can not, if we refuse Jesus, escape death; we 
can not escape the exposure of our sins; we can not 
escape the judgment of God. O, shall we not all come 
to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and ask Him to 
come into our hearts to-day and teach us by a blessed 
experience how " the blood of J e sits Christ His Son, 
cleansethjts from all sin.'' Will you have your heart 
cleansed like the glass in my right hand } or will you 
be of those that hide from their Saviour and be left 
like the glass in my left hand } 



i . 






^^^^■^; 




V|>-rarp>/ 



"And 1, IF I BE Lifted Up from the Earth" 



THE MAGNET SERMON. 

" /, iy I be lifted tip from the earth, zvill draw all 
men unto me.'' (John xii: 32.) 

Now, children, take a good look at my Magnet. 




I am going to use it to teach you the meaning of 
some Bible verses that speak of Jesus, and how He 
has come to be our Saviour. 

Before I commence, let me answer one or two t^f 
the questions that I see in your eyes. " What is it 
made like a horseshoe for?" Because, when it is 
being charged with electricity, it is placed between 
two pieces of wire, over which the electricity is con- 
veyed. " What is the meaning of the word magnet V 
It means loadstone, and is derived from Magnesia, 
the Greek name of a place where ore was dug out of 
the ground that would draw iron to itself, or w^ould 
turn to the north pole, when suspended in the air,^so 

25 



26 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

as to be easily moved. " Isn*t there glue or some- 
thing on the ends of the magnet that makes things stick 
to it?" No. I can show you that there is nothing of 
that kind, by putting the magnet on pieces of paper. 
See; it will not lay hold of .them. 

" What is it, then, that makes it hold the nails ?" 
The wisest man on earth can not tell you; for the 
wisest man on earth does not know. It is called elec- 
tricity ; but what that is, no one can explain. There 
is a power here that we can not see, and that we can 
not understand. 

What do we do, therefore 1 Do we refuse to use it, 
and say that we will not believe in anything we can 
not explain 1 Not at all. We find that it is possible 
for us to use this power to do our work and add to our 
well being, and so we make machines adapted to it, 
and send messages across the sea; light up our city 
streets and factories; move our cars, and do a score of 
things besides, with a power that we cannot explain. 
Is it not very strange that, with such a lesson daily 
before them, men will say that they can not use the 
Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour or let the Holy 
Spirit of God into their souls to give them, eternal life, 
because they can not understand the one or see the 
other .^ But this is just what we read in the Bible. 
" I zvill pray the Father, and he shall give you another 
Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: even 
the Spirit of truth; zvhom the world can not receive, 
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye 



The Magnet Sermon 27 

knozv him; for he divelletJi with yon, and shall be in 
von,'' (John xiv: 16, 17.) " Tlie natural man re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they 
are foolishness nnto him; neither can he know them, be- 
cause they are spiritually discerned.'' (I Cor. ii: 14.) 

So, children, when any infidel tells you he doesn't 
believe in anything he can't see, ask him if he believes 
there is a power called electricity: if he says " Yes," 
ask him if he ever saw the electricity; he will have to 
answer " No, " that he has only seen its effects. So 
we, as Christians, believe in the Spirit of Gqd, not 
because we see Him, 'but because we see the effects of 
His power upon our fellow men, and know of his work- 
ing in our own hearts. Just as you know there is a 
power in this magnet that is not in this piece of wood; 
because one will move this piece of steel without 
touching it, while the other has no effect upon it. 
Children, to be infidels and say, " We won't believe 
things we can't see," is very foolish. No truly wise 
person would ever say such a thing as that. 

Now, we will have our illustrations. We will num- 
ber them as we go on, so that the lesson may be bet- 
ter remembered. 

Number One. I have here before me pieces of gold, 
silver, copper and iron. The three first are all worth 
much more than the last. The magnet will not, how- 
ever, lay hold of the more valuable metals, but imme- 
diately fastens itself to the iron. Let this be a beau- 
tiful illustration to you of Heb. ii: 14 and 16, as found 
in the revised version: " Since then the children are 



28 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

sharers in flesh and bloody he also himself in like man- 
ner partook of the same. For verily not of angels doth 
he take hold, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham. "^ 
There were angels that sinrDsd and lost their place in 
Heaven. Jesus is not their Redeemer, but he is the 
Redeemer of any boy or girl, man or woman, who will 
accept him. 

Number Two. Think of what this piece of iron 
passed through in becoming a magnet. 

The iron ore was dug out of the ground by pick and 
drill; it was melted in hot furnaces and made into 
bars; re-melted in hotter furnaces and made into steel; 
rolled into plates between immense and powerful 
rollers; cut into strips by great steel shears; heated 
again and bent into its horseshoe form, and pounded 
by hammers and polished upon wheels, it became a 
magnet. This is a faint illustration of what our Lord 
Jesus passed through that He might draw us to God. 

" Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal zvith God: but made himself of 
no reputation, arid took upon him the form of a servant, 
and was made in the likeiiess of men. And being 
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross.'' (Phil, ii:' 6 to 8.) ''''His visage was so 
marred more tlian any man, and his form more than 
the sons of men. He is despised and rejected of men; 
a man of sorrozvs and acquainted zvith grief. He was 
oppressed and he was afflicted, yet lie opened not his 
mouth. It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath 



The Magnet Sermon 29 

put him to grief. -But he was wonnded for onr trans- 
gressions, Jie was bruised for our iniquities ; the chas- 
tisement of otir peace was upon him, and with his 
stripes zve are healed.'' (Isa. Hi: I4andliii: 3, 7, 10 and 

5-) 

A little lad of four or five years was one day read- 
ing to his mother in the New Testament, and when 
he came to these words, " The foxes have holes and 
the birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of man 
hath not zvhere to lay his head,'' his eyes filled with 
tears, and with a child's unrestrained gush of feeling, 
he said to his mother, " I am sure, Mamma, if I had 
been there I would have git^en Him my pillow." 

O, how we should love and praise our blessed Re- 
deemer for all that He suffered for our salvation ! 
Let us ever remember that it was only by these suf- 
ferings that we could be drawn to God; just as it was 
by what this piece of iron passed through, that it is 
now possible for it to draw these other pieces. " The 
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolish- 
ness ; but unto Its zvJiich are saved it is the power of 
God." (I Cor. i: 18.) 

Number Three. I now wish you to notice on the 
table in front of me a collection of nails and pieces of 
iron; some of them are of queer form, and others of 
them have queer coverings. The reasons for this you 
will see as we go on. Now, all of these represent 
people that have not come to Jesus, but are still in 
the world. 

On my right hand you see another table. It is a 



30 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

very pretty table, you notice, and has beautiful 
flowers upon it. This table represents the place of 
salvation. All who accept of Jesus come here. Now, 
I want to get the pieces of iron from one table to the 
other, and as they can not move themselves, they 
must be lifted over. For this purpose I shall use the 
magnet. Now these nails are not any more helpless 
in getting to that table than you are helpless in get- 
ting to heaven by any strength or power in yourself 
alone. As the nails need the magnet, so you need 
Jesus. As the nails have the capacity to receive elec- 
tricity from the magnet, and then by that electricity to 
cling to the magnet, so you have capacity to receive 
from Jesus the Spirit of God, and then by the Spirit of 
God to be joined to Jesus. Let this illustration explain 
to you John vi: 44: " No man can come to me, except 
the Father zvhich hath sent me draw him: and I will 
raise him up at the last day,'' Also John x: 27 to 29: 
" My sheep hear my voice, and I knozv them, and they 
follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and 
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of my hand.'' 

Nmnber Four. — Notice here on the table four dif- 
ferent sizes of nails, in four different groups. They 
represent different ages of people called by the gospel. 
These very large nails, some of them bent and rusty, 
are men and women over fifty years of age. Jesus 
does come and save some of this class; but not many. 
As rust covering iron prevents its receiving electricity 
from the magnet, so the power of the world and the 




"My Sheep Follow Me," 



32 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

force of sinful habits harden the hearts of those who 
continue in sin, and they will not come to Christ. 
See, as I repeat the gospel message — " This is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners^ of 
whom I am chief ; I put the magnet down among 
these heavy nails, and I get but two of them. Thank 
God, for the ones and tzvos of the aged sinners who 
come to Christ; but, alas ! the most of them die in 
their sins. 

Now I come with the magnet to the next group of 
nails which represents men and women from twenty 
to fifty years of age. The gospel message for them is: 
" That zve should be to the praise of his glory, zvho 
first trusted in Clunst. In whom ye also trusted, after 
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your 
salvation; in zvhom also after that ye believed, ye were 
sealed with that holy SpiiHt of promise.'' (Eph. i: 12 
and 13.) See how from this group, the magnet lifts 
more than twice the number that were taken from the 
other. 

Now we come to the third group, which represents 
those from thirteen to twenty years old. My message 
to them is, " Remember now thy Creator in the days of 
thy youth.'' (Eccl. xii: i.) " To-day if ye will hear 
his voice, harden not your hearts." (Heb. iii: 7 and 8.) 
And out of this group I lift four times as many as 
from the second group. See how they cling to all 
parts of the magnet, and how some are brought by 
clinging to those who are clinging to the magnet. The 



The Magnet Sermon 33 

current of electricity passes down from the magnet 
through the nails, so that they, while connected with 
the magnet, have power to draw their companions. 
This is the way it is with the young people in the 
churches. They are social and fond of being together, 
and so, w^hen a few come to Christ, they are able, if 
they keep close to Christ, and are full of the Holy 
Spirit, to bring many others with them. 

Now we come to this last group of small nails and 
tacks. You all know whom they are intended for ! 
Yes; boys and girls under thirteen years of age. I 
place the magnet right among them as I utter the 
loving call of Jesus to the young: ^^ Suffer little 
children, and forbid them not to come tmto me ; for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven.'' (Matt, xix: 14; 
Mark x: 14; Luke xviii: 16.) And, see ! so many are 
clinging to the magnet, I can not count them ! I have 
more from this one effort than from all three of my 
previous efforts. 

Surely there are two valuable lessons from this. 

First, the time to come to Jesus and give Him our 
hearts is when we are young. It will be easier then 
than at any other time. 

Second, if we would win many souls, we must preach 
to the young. Many ministers wear themselves out, 
and get broken hearted and discouraged, preaching 
Sunday after Sunday to hardened, gray-haired sinners 
who are as unmoved under his pleadings as these rusty 
nails are by the magnet. I keep putting it down, but 
it don't stir one of them. See the difference, as I 



34 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

bring the magnet to those that represent the young ! 
Why, they just leap right up and chng to the magnet, 
Hke Httle children springing into the arms of a dear 
father or mother. So let the minister leave the 
gospel-hardened rusty hearers of his congregation to go 
in the direction in which they have been persistently 
pulling all of their lives, and turn to the young, witTi 
the simple story of the Cross, and he will be made to 
rejoice over the blessing God will give him. 

Now we will take Number Five of our illustrations. 
Here are two large nails and five small nails, all tied 
together. What does this mean } Read Acts xvi: 31, 
and see if that will explain it: ^' Believe on the Lord 
Jesits Clirist, and thou shalt be saved, and thine 
HOUSE." Oh ! yes; now we see: this is a father, mother 
and five children. We are urging the father to become 
a Christian, and we tell him that it is not only for his 
own sake, but for wife and children as well. How 
often I have urged this consideration upon men and 
women who were hesitating about coming to Jesus ! 
Sometimes I have told them of my own dear mother, 
who in 1858 had to come out and confess Jesus all 
alone, neither husband nor one of her five children with 
her. But as she lived true to Christ and continued 
in prayer for her family, one after the other she drew 
them all with her, just as the magnet, laying hold of 
the large nail, draws all connected with it 

The Number Six illustration is a little different. Here 
we have two large nails, tied to a small one. The les- 
son is found in Isa. xi: 6: ^'' A little child shall lead 




"Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me" 



36 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

them.''' Very often in a family, it may be that Jesus 
will come first to one of the children, and father and 
mother will be led to God by one of their little ones. 
If a girl or boy truly loves the Saviour, the little words 
they sometimes speak come from their hearts and 
always move the hearts of others. Here is a very 
pretty story of what a little girl did, in drawing her 
older sister to a better life. 

A Star in Her Crown. 

A young lady was preparing for a dancing party, 
and standing before a large mirror placed a light 
crown, ornamented with silver stars, upon her head. 
While thus standing, a little fair-haired sister climbed 
into a chair, and put up her tiny fingers to examine 
this beautiful head-dress, and was accosted thus, " Sis- 
ter, what are you doing 1 You should not touch that 
crown! '' Said the little one, " I was looking at that, 
and thinking of something else." ^^ Tell me what you 
are thinking about — you, a little child." ^^ I was re- 
membering that my Sabbath School teacher said, that 
if we save sinners by our influence we should win stars 
for our crown in heaven; and when I saw those stars 
in your crown, I wished I could save some soul." The 
elder sister went to the dance, but in solemn medita- 
tion the words of the innocent child found a lodgment 
in her heart, and she could not enjoy the association 
of her friends. At an early hour she left the hall and 
returned to her home, and going to the chamber where 



The Magnet Sermon 37 

her dear little sister was sleeping, imprinted a kiss 
upon her soft cheek, and said, " Precious sister, you 
have won one star for your crown," and kneeling at 
the bedside offered a fervent prayer to God for mercy. 

Not long ago in a town where I was conducting 
meetings, the mayor of the town confessed faith in 
Christ, and told the people a touching story of how he 
was awakened by the death of his only little boy. 
Just before the dear child died, he looked up and said 
very earnestly — " Up! up!" His father thought he 
meant that he wanted to go up-stairs, and said, " Yes, 
Willie; Papa will carry you up-stairs." "No," he 
said; " higher, higher; Papa don't know the way; let 
Mamma come." He saw, then, that his little boy was 
dying, and he stood one side while the mother came 
and held him in her arms and prayed with him. He 
said the thought that in the hour of death he could 
not pray with his dear boy, and the words, " Papa, 
don't know the way," led him to resolve to seek his 
Saviour. 

Thousands upon thousands of fathers and moth- 
ers have been drawn to Jesus in this way. The 
first song of a religious character that dear Mr. Bliss 
ever published, was suggested by a true story of the 
death of a little boy, very much like the mayor's 
Willie. Very many hearts have been touched by the 
song, and very many fathers and mothers whose 
children are in heaven have sought Jesus, that they 
might go there, too, after hearing it. 



38 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermoiis 

" I should like to die," said Willie, "if my papa could die too; 
But he says he isn't ready, 'cause he has so much to do ; 
And my little sister Nellie says that I must surely die. 
And that she and mamma — then she stopped, because it made me cry. 

" But she told me, I remember, once while sitt!*ng on her knee. 
That the angels never weary watching over her and me; 
And that if we're good — and mamma told me just the same before — 
They will let us into heaven when they see us at the door. 

" There I know I shall be happy, and shall always want to stay; 
I shall love to hear the singing, I shall love the endless day 1 
I shall love to look at Jesus, I shall love Him more and more, 
And I'll see the happy angels who forever Him adore. 

"There will be none but the holy — I shall know no more of sin; 
There I'll see mamma and Nellie, for I know He'll let them in; 
But I'll have to tell the angel, when I meet him at the door, 
That he must excuse my papa, 'cause he couldn't leave the store. 

" Nellie says that maybe I shall very soon be called away; 
If papa were only ready, I should like to go to-day; 
But if I should go before him to that world of light and joy, 
Then I guess he'd want to come to heaven to see his little boy." 

^* Yes, sir," said a working man in Buffalo, New 
York, " I heard that song Sunday afternoon in the hall, 
and it broke me all up. Our little boy died three months 
ago, and he made me and his mother promise to be good 
and meet him in heaven. We hadn't done nothing 
about it, and the song was just what I needed. Mon- 
day morning when I was on my knees in the kitchen 
building the fire for my wife, the thought came to me, 
' Now is the time. You are on your knees. Pray 
to the Lord for a new heart, and make a start for 
heaven.' I did pray and the Lord heard me, and 
my wife has started too, and we shall, by God's help, 
meet our little boy." 

It is not necessary, however, that a little girl or boy 
should die in order to get father and mother to come 
to Jesus. I could tell you a great many stories of boys 



The Magnet Sermon 39 

and girls who became earnest Christians, and their 
consistent hves were used of God to lead their parents 
to Christ. I want to urge upon any of you young peo- 
ple who are tJiinking oi becoming disciples of Jesus, 
not to put off because your father and mother may be 
indifferent or opposed to you. It may be God's plan 
to save them through you. He will certainly use you 
in your family if you will let Him. All you will have 
to do will be to cling close to Jesus every day, just as 
this small nail that I am now lifting clings to the 
magnet, and He will fill you with His spirit, just as the 
magnet imparts electricity to the nail, and you can not 
fail of being made a blessing to those around you. 
Would it not be a wonderful joy if you could bring 
father and mother to Jesus, just as these two nails are 
brought by the small one that clings to the magnet } 

Niimbei' Seven. Here is rather a nice looking nail; 
steel, with a bright, brass head. That is something 
like what they say of people called " higher critics." 
The magnet can do nothing at all with the head; but 
below the head there is a heart, and this seems to 
have some desires after better things. It lays hold of 
the magnet. But what is all this bundle of things that 
it is tied to, and that is keeping it back } Dear me ! 
Here is a cord of silk tied to the nail at one end, and 
tied around — a theatre bill, a pack of cards, an invita- 
tion to a ball, and a novel. Christ pulling one way and 
the world another. For the lesson see Matt, xvi: 24 
and 25: " //" any 7nan will come after me, let him deny 
himself y aftd take up his cross^ and follow me. For 



40 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

zvhosoever zvill save his life shall lose it: and whosoever 
shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. ' ' The magnet 
pulls, but the world pulls the harder, and this nail 
must be left behind. " She hath chosen the world.'' 

Number Eight. Another fine looking nail; and a 
nail with a response to the magnet. It lays hold as if 
it really felt its need. But, alas ! as I pull upon it, it 
begins to loosen its hold. There is something here 
that is hindering the coming to Christ. Ah ! here it 
is. The nail is tied to a heavy pocket-book ! For the 
lesson read I Tim. vi: lo: " For ^ the love of money is 
the root of all evil ; which zvhile some coveted after, they 
have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves 
through with ina7iy sorrows.'' 

A very wealthy, aged man once told me: " I would 
give all the money I possess if I could have faith. 
But it is too late. I turned from all of the pleadings 
of God when I was young, determined that I would be 
rich, and now I can not come." It is not a sin to pos- 
sess money, but it is a sin to let money possess us. 
To love anything in the world better than I love God 
is to break the " first and great commandment." 

O, that God would give us grace to always feel toward 
the poor and needy who are around us as the little girl 
mentioned in this story: 

" A mother sat busily sewing in front of the bright, 
open fireplace of her snug little sitting-room, when sud- 
denly her attention was arrested by the sound of voices 
in the adjoining room. There on the floor sat her lit- 
tle three-year-old girl, pulling off her own . shoes and 



The Magnet Sermon 41 

giving them to her dark-eyed companion, who was 
barefooted, ragged and cold. 

" * What are you doing, my dear ? ' asked the mother. 

" ' Why, Mamma, this poor httle dirl hasn't dot any 
soos, and Dod wouldn't love me if I didn't div her one 
of my pairs when I have so many. ' 

" This plea of unselfishness deeply touched the heart 
of that gentle mother, w^ho gave the needy little 
stranger not only shoes, but other good, warm cloth- 
ing, then took her into the kitchen where for once her 
ravenous appetite was satisfied." 

If this Christ-like sympathy fills our hearts, we can 
so use the money God may see fit to entrust us with 
as to make it a blessing and to add to our treasures in 
heaven. 

What a pity it is that we can't get this rich man to 
see this, and bring both him and his pocket-book to 
Jesus. Supposing we try again. Let the magnet 
take a good square hold of him; give him the text, 
" What is a man profited if lie shall gain the zvhole 
world and lose his ozvn soitlf (Matt, xv: 26.) Tell 
him how the Son of God loved him and died for him; 
read to him II Cor. viii: 9: " For ye know the grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christy that, though he zvas rich, 
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his 
poverty might be rich.'' Tell him of the happiness 
he can have in ministering in Christ's name to the 
needy, and of the everlasting joy bye and bye, when 
the Lord Jesus shall welcome him to heaven and say: 
" Inasmuch as ,ye have done it unto one of the least of 



42 Gospel Pictures and Sto7y Sermons 

these my brethren, ye liave done it unto Me.'' (Matt. 
XXV : 40.) Ah ! I think we have won him ! See ! he 
chngs to the magnet, and the pocket-book is being 
Hfted along too ! 

Now we must let the magnet do the work, and 
move very carefully, or this heavy load will drop back 
again. Remember how Jesus said, " // is easier for 
a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a 
rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.'' (Matt, 
xix: 24.) Thank God that he also added, " With 
God all things are possible," and so we have the rich 
man, pocket-book and all, safely landed. But for 
one rich man who becomes a true disciple of our Lord 
Jesus, there are a hundred whose souls are lost by the 
love of money. 

Nu-mber Nine. Here is a poor, bent, crooked, 
tipsy-looking nail, that has got hold of the magnet in 
a feeble kind of way. As we lift it up, we see that it 
also has a string tied to it. We pull as far as we can, 
and lo ! the string is tied to a bottle ! O, how 
many thousands are like this. They have longings 
to be better, and to escape from sin, but Satan 
has them tied fast to their appetite, and holds them as 
prisoners of Hell. The jug is too heavy for us to lift 
with the magnet, and there is no use for its contents 
among saved people. If this man is to be saved, he 
must break the cord and leave his bottle behind him. 
Will he call earnestly and sincerely -on the Lord 
Jesus for grace to do this .^ Will he have a wife or 
children with faith in Christ to pray for him, to love 



f-J&^'K^J^' '■ 




"The Drunkard Shall Come to Poverty." 



44 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

his soul, and encourage him to break the cord ? One 
night we were pleading with a man who was kept in the 
power of Satan by this sin, and his little girl edged 
along in the seat toward her papa, and putting her 
arms around his neck said, *' Do come to Jesus, Papa, 
and Mamma won't cry any more." This broke the 
cord, and the man came to Jesus; just as I have 
broken this cord, and the nail clings to the magnet, 
and the bottle is left behind. But for this one that I 
rescue, see, as I lift up the bottle, a dozen more of 
nails are tied to it, and must be left behind. 

Children, to be a drunkard is a dreadful sin. But 
])erhaps it is a zvorse sin to have anything to do with 
making drunkards, by our example. Let it be the 
motto of every boy and girl to '^ touch not, taste not, 
liandle not,'' as long as you live. 

We have now come to Number Ten of our illustra- 
tions. And here we have a queer looking character ! 
What can this be .^ A nail dressed up like a doll! 
You would hardly know there was a nail here, if you 
did not feel it beneath the clothing, or hear the sound 
as I rap upon the head. What in the world can this 
man mean in fixing up in this way t It is a great mis- 
take if he wants the magnet to save him, for, see ! 
there is no place where the magnet can get hold to 
lift him. O, I see what it means ! This is the Pharisee 
that fixed himself up so nicely to go to heaven that he 
didn't want Jesus. Read Luke xviii: 11-12: " The 
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with hiii\self^ Gody I 
thank thee that I am not as other men are^ extortioners ^ 



The Magnet Sermon 45 

unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast 
twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.'' 
Poor little Pharisee ! After all this hard work and fix- 
ing up, he is here, left behind with the drunkards and 
rejectors of Christ, helpless, with all of his fine cloth- 
ing, to take a single step toward heaven and salvation ! 
He has seen ^' publicans and sinners " go into th'^ 
kingdom of heaven before him, and he has become 
alarmed about himself. Perhaps he has read the words 
of Jesus: *^ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a 
man be boim again, he can not see the kingdom of God. " 
(John iii: 3.) And he is now inquiring anxiously, 
" What must I do to be savedV Ah, friend, your 
first need is to be stripped of your own righteousness, 
before you can receive the righteousness of Christ.- 
Are you w^illing to give up your fine clothing, and come 
as a poor sinner to Jesus for mercy, and be saved by 
grace? Read the Word of God in Phil, iii: 9, as to 
the terms of God's salvation: ^* And be found in him, 
not having niine own righteousness, zvhich is of the 
law, but that ivhich is through the faith of Christ, the 
righteousness ivhicli is of God by fait Ji.'' Yes, he 
wants this righteousness, and is willing to give up his 
old robes that he may lay hold of Christ. See, now, 
as we strip away the clothing that he was so proud of, 
that he is just a poor, naked sinner, like all the others. 
And remember that this is true of all that live upon 
the earth. Noble birth, official position, great genius, 
riches, beauty, or rank are only so much clothing, cover- 
ing for a little while, and creating a difference in the 



46 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

appearance of people before one another; but in the 
sight of God " There is no difference, for all have sinned 
and come short of the glojy of God.'' (Ro. iii: 22, 23.) 
None can be saved, none can become children of God, 
except they come to Christ and receive the Spirit of 
God. How easily they may do this, you can see from 
the way the naked nail now lays hold of the magnet 
and is lifted to the place of salvation. 

We will now have Number Eleven^ and the closing 
illustration. 

All of these pieces that are on this table, the place 
of salvation, represent those who have received Jesus, 
and are supposed, by their being here, to be true 
Christians. This is what Jesus intended should be the 
case with members of His church here in this world. 
But alas ! many become members of His church who 
are not born again, not really changed in heart, and 
not partakers of the Holy Ghost. It was of church 
members that the apostle Paul wrote in H Tim. iii: 5: 
" Having a form of godliness, but denying the power 
thereof.'' Children, how foolish it is to pretend what 
we are not, and to get into any place where we do not 
belong. It is much easier to be a real Christian than 
to go through life making believe I am one. And 
then, at the last, of course I shall be found out, and 
rejected by God, and put to shame before angels and 
men. Read Matt, xxii: 11 and 12. ^^ And when the 
King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man 
zvhich had not on a zvedding gaimient : and he saith 
unto him. Friend, hozv camest thou in hither not hav- 




THE^TwHiCH Had Not On The Wedding Garment. 



48 Gospel Picttwes and Story Sei^nwns 

ing a wedding garment ? And lie was speechless, " I 
know of nothing more sad in all the Bible than this. 
May God lead us all to careful obedience of the many 
plain commands of His word to " Give diligence to 
make our calling and election stcre' (II Peter i: lo), 
and to *^ Examine yourselves, zvhetherye be in the faith; 
prove your own selves, Kitow ye not your own selves^ 
hozv that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?'^ 
(II Cor. xiii: 5.) 

I am sure if we pray earnestly to God, and carefully 
read his Word, He will certainly show us our true con- 
dition and will keep us from being self-deceived. It 
seems to me that the simplest test for us to use is 
found in Romans viii: 9: " Now if any man have not 
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. " We know that 
the Spirit of Christ loved God, and sought in all things 
to please Him; and loved men, and sought in all ways 
to save them. Have we this Spirit t 

If these pieoes of iron are indeed pieces of iron, they 
have the same properties as the magnet, and will cling 
to the magnet. Some of them may be crooked, bent, 
rusty and imperfect, but still, see ! they will cling to 
the magnet. So we, conscious of many imperfections, 
and not yet in the glorified bodies we shall have in 
Heaven, may be conscious that we do love and cling 
to our Lord Jesus Christ as our only Saviour. When 
He is defamed, we defend Him; when He is blas- 
phemed, we bless Him; when He is despised, we de- 
light in Him; when He is denied, we declare our faith 
in Him. There i§ no story we love to hear like the story 



The Magnet Seruton 49 

of His love; there is no music so sweet to us as the 
music of His name; there is no real solid satisfaction 
for us in life, except in His service, and in being sancti- 
fied by His Spirit. Now this could not be so if we were 
not His children. 

I read the other day of a little girl at school, 
who showed in a beautiful way whose child she was, 
and that she loved her father. She had been asked 
in the class to spell the word " clown." She spelled 
it, " C-1-o-w-n— Clown." " Correct," said the teacher. 
" Now give me the definition." ^^ I don't want to,"- 
said the little girl. '' Do you know the definition '> " 
asked the teacher. '^ Yes, Marm," she replied. " Well, 
then," said the teacher, " j^ou must obey me; give the 
answer." ^' Please, Marm," said the little girl, as she 
began to cry, " I don't want to." 

The good teacher was wise enough to take the little 
girl one side and ask her, " Why, Mary, do you not 
want to give the definition 1 " 

" Because, marm," she answered, " my papa is a 
clown in a circus; and I didn't want to say that he 
is 'a low, vulgar fellow.' " 

Thus this little girl showed the loyalty of her heart 
to her papa. It is needless to say that her kind 
teacher excused her. So, through life, the true child 
of God, man or woman, boy or girl, will be constantly 
showing whether he has the spirit of Christ, by his 
taking, or failing to take, the side of Christ. 

Now, while I have been talking to you, my magnet 
has been lifting up all of theg§ nails, showing that 



50 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

they are true pieces of iron; and has come to one, 
from which it secures no response. The magnet 
touches it, but it does not move. I hold it in my 
hand, and place it close to the magnet, but it does 
not cling. It has the appearance of a nail, and looks 
just like these other pieces, but it can not be like them. 
Let us examine and test it. Ah, as I bend it in my 
hands it snaps in two ! It is not iron at all, but a 
piece of painted wood, carried to this table, not by 
the magnet, but by the hand of man. We cast it out, 
and throw it away, repeating the solemn words of our 
Lord Jesus: " Many zvill say to vie in that day, Lord, 
Lord, have zve not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy 
name have cast ont devils ? and in thy name done many 
zvonderful zvorks ? And then zvill L profess unto them, 
L never knezv you: depart from me, ye that zvork 
iniquity,'' 

Alas ! Alas ! They talked a great deal about what 
they had done for Jesus, but said nothing at all about 
what He had done for them. Was not this the rea- 
son that He did not know them 1 

The lessons from the magnet are ended. 



THE CANDLE SERMON. 

" I am the light of the world,'' (Jno. viii: 12.) 
" The Light of the World is Jesus,'' This is our les- 
son to-day. 

It would be very nice if the Bible verses I am going 
to use for this sermon could be read by different boys 
and girls. I will give out the verses now, and per- 
haps some of you that have Bibles will find them, and 
read them for me when I call for them. 




John viii: 12. II Cor. iv: 6. Ps. cxix: 130. Ro. 
x: 17. Jno. xx: 30-31. Acts ii: 4, 32 and 33. Eph. 
iv: 14. Gal. v: 21. I Thess. v: 19. II Cor. iv: 4. 
I Jno. i: 9. Matt, v: 14 to 16. 

Now please read John viii: 12. 

" Tlien spake Jesus again imto them^ sayings I am 
the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not 
walk in darkness^ but shall have the light of life." 



51 




*'The Light of the World is Jesus." 



The Candle Sennoii §3 

" The light of Hfe ! " What a beautiful thought that 
is ! There is no light without life, and wherever 
there is life there is always light. 

Now, the large candle that you see burning before 
you illustrates that verse. None of the candles around 
it have 5^et received light. The light which they are 
to receive must come from the candle already lit. So 
our Lord Jesus was at one time the only one in the world 
who had the true light of life. All who have ever 
received light have received it from Him. These unlit 
candles represent boys and girls and men and women 
who have not yet received Jesus, and are, therefore, 
without life and light. 

Please read II Cor. iv: 6. " God, who commanded the 
light to shine ont of darkness, hath shinedin our hearts, 
to give tJie light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ. " We see from this verse that all 
the light in this world, that is so pleasant to our eyes, 
and that w^e think comes from the sun, comes from God. 
He said, " Let tJiere be liglit ; and there was ligJit.'' We 
also see that the same great and good God who made 
the light for our eyes, is the light for our souls. And just 
as the light from God for our eyes comes from the sun, 
so the light from God for our souls comes from Jesus. 

Read Ps. cxix: 130. " The entrance of thy zvord 
giveth light ; it givetJi under standing unto the simple. " 

We are taught by this verse that the knowledge of 
Jesus comes to us from the Bible. So Ro. x: 17. 
'' Faith Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word 
of God.'' Also, John xx: 30, 31, where we are told 



54 Gospel Pictured and Story Sermons 

that God has given us the Bible that we might read the 
things about Jesus, and by reading, might be led to 
*^ believe that Jesns is the Christ, the Son of God; and 
that, believing, ye miglit have life through his name.'" 
Thus we have explained hozv the light comes to us. 

Now I have here three boys and four girls, whom I 
am going to use as light bearers. This is really what 
all who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ are. 

Jesus says of His disciples in Matt, v: 14: ^^ Ye are 
the light of the ivoi^ld.'' And in Matt, v: 16: " Let 
vonr light so shine before men, that they may see yoicr 
good works and glorify your Father zvhich is in 
heaven.'' So we read that after Jesus went back to 
heaven, those who had seen Him while He was here 
on the earth, went everywhere telling about His 
wonderful works and words, His death on the cross. 
His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension to 
heaven; and in this way the light was spread all over 
the world. It is just the same now. I trust that each 
of these young light bearers has received into their 
souls the knowledge of Jesus so that they could really 
be used of God to impart light to other souls, just as I 
am going to use them to impart light to some of the 
candles. 

I have asked each one of m.y helpers to write some 
favorite verse about Jesus upon a slip of paper, and 
make it into a lamp-lighter. I do not know what 
verses they have written, but we will now call them to 
their work, and let each read the verse they have 
chosen. 



The Candle Sermon 55 

" For God so loved the zvorld that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, bnt have everlasting life.'' (John iii: 16.) 

Well, my boy, you have chosen a beautiful verse. 
Thousands have been led into the light by that word 
of Jesus about the Father's love. Indeed, it is the 
believing truly that God is our Father, and loves us in 
Jesus, that is the light within our souls. But what is 
the matter t This boy is putting the paper with the 
verse upon it right on the wick of a candle that wants 
to be lighted, and yet it does not light ! What is the 
matter ? O, he has not set his paper on fire at the 
one burning candle ! No wonder he could not light 
anything with it; he had no fire! Read Acts ii: 4, and 
xxxii: 33, to see what I would have this teach you: 
" And they zvere all filled with the Holy Ghost, and be- 
gan to speak zvith other tongues, as the Spirit gave 
them utterance, ^ ^ ^ This Jesics hath God raised 
up, zvhereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by 
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of 
tJie Father the pronnse of the Holy Ghost, lie hath 
shed forth this, which ye now see and hear."" So it is 
not simply the words of the Bible that set souls on 
fire; but the words of the Bible spoken by a soul that 
has already been set on fire by the Holy Spirit of God, 
received from Jesus. Before we go out to speak these 
holy words to others, we must come to Jesus to get the 
fire, just as this boy now lights his paper at the burn- 
ing candle, and then very easily lights the candle 
that is ready to be lighted. 



56 Gospel Pictiu'es and Story Sermons 

Now a girl may come with her text: 

" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I zvill give yon rest.'' (Matt, xi: 28.) This, too, is 
a lovely text. I have known a great many to get light 
by this verse. Wlio does it say may come t All that 
labor. To zvliom do they come ? To Jesus. . What 
is promised to those that come .^ Rest. 

Now, this candle that waits to be lighted, we will 
fancy is a man who wants to be a Christian. Here he 
is over at this end of the table, and here is the light- 
bearer at the other end of the table. I give the invi- 
tation of Jesus for him to come and get light and get 
rest. He makes one or two starts, and comes a little 
way, and then goes back. Well, we must have the 
light go to him. We will move the light-bearer to the 
other end of the table. But see ! As the light comes 
to him, he runs away from the light ! How true are 
the words of Jesus — *' Ye will not come to me that ye 
might have life,'' (Jno. vi: 40.) Alas! there are 
many of these candles that we shall not get lighted, 
and this is one of them. I am sorry for my light- 
bearer; but we must remember that Jesus told us that 
many would not receive our testimony, and also said, 
" He that despiseth you despiseth me." (Luke x: 16.) 
If many turn away into darkness, there will be some 
who will come to the light. Our part is to keep our 
light burning, and be always ready when we meet with 
those who are seeking light to give it to them. The 
keeper of the lamp in the lighthouse never knows, 
through the long, dark night, of the ships that have 



TJic Candle Scnnon 57 

been guided into the harbor by the hght that he has 
kept burning. It is not his business to know. His 
part is to keep the hght burning. See from the pict- 
ure in front of the first page of this sermon how im- 
portant it is that he should do this. 

Here is another candle waiting for light. Repeat 
your text, dear girl, and see if this one will not receive 
your message. *' Seek ye fii^st the kingdovi of God 
and his rigJiteonsness, and all these things zvill be 
added nnto yon.'' Yes; the candle burns up brightly;, 
your work has not been in vain. You did not light 
the one you first selected, but you have lit this one. 

Now, one of the boys may come with a text. " Son, 
thy sins be forgiven thee.'' (Mark ii: 5.) Well, how 
quickly the light came to this one ! 

Do you want to know why 1 

Read the story in the second chapter of Mark, and 
see how utterly lost and helpless the poor palsied man 
was as he lay at the feet of Jesus, and looked up into 
His face. When we get into the .?^;;/^ place, and feel 
the sa7/ie way, and look in the same direction, the 
light comes like a flash; and we see that Jesus came 
on purpose to be the Saviour of just such sinners as we 
are; and if we have faith enough to come to Him, He 
calls us ^^ sons," and tells us that our sins are forgiven. 

Now, another girl may come and try and light a 
candle. And what is your text.^ 

Luke vii: 50. ^^ And he said to thezvoniaii, Thy faith 
JiatJi saved thee ; go in peace." Well, another candle 
burns up brightly. What a beautiful verse it is that 




"Thy Sins are Forgiven Thee." 



The Candle Sermon 59 

tells us how the Hght came to the woman in the city, 
who was a sirnner, who came to Jesus' feet, as he sat 
in the house of Simon. 

*• The frown and the murmur went round through them all, 
That one so unhallowed should tread in that hall ; 
And some said the poor would be objects more meet, 
As the wealth of her perfume she showered on His feet. 

In the sky, after tempest, as shineth the bow — 
In the glance of the sunbeam, as melteth the snow 
He looked on that lost one: 'her sins were forgiven,' 
And the sinner went forth in the beauty of heaven." 

O, what a joy it is to have this heavenly Hght ! To 
know that God forgives my sins, and that He loves 
me, and dwells by His Spirit in my heart ! And surely, 
next to the joy of having the light myself, is the joy 
of being used to give the light to others. If some 
good woman, like Salome, or Joanna, told the woman 
of Luke seventh that Jesus was in Simon's house and 
encouraged her to go to Him, how happy she must 
have been when she heard the result, and met the 
rejoicing one, as she came from the presence of the 
Lord ! O, that every boy and girl here would make 
it the business of life to bring as many souls to Jesus 
as possible; kindling lights wherever they go, that 
shall burn brightly on the earth when they have gonfe 
to shine in the presence of Jesus in heaven. 

Now, another of the boys may come and repeat his 
text. John vi: 37. ^' All that the Father giveth me 
shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me, I will in 
no wise cast onty And now another candle is brightly 
burning, and has joined the circle of light. 

I knew of a little girl who was used by God in lead- 
ing her dear father to Jesus by this verse. He had 



6o Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

been a wicked man, and had been put in prison for a 
crime committed when he was drunk. When released 
from prison he came home and told his wife and chil- 
dren that he was going far away, and that they would 
never see him again. He said that he was bad and 
could never be anything else but bad, and that he 
would go off somewhere where he could die and bring 
no more disgrace upon his family. His Christian wife 
wept and besought him to pray to Jesus for salvation 
and not give up to despair. She brought the Bible 
and said: ^^ Husband, read God's word and seek His 
help." He pushed the Bible away and said: '^ Don't 
torture me by bringing me that Book. There is 
nothing in it for me but condemnation. I am a lost 
man." He buried his face in his hands and his poor, 
sobbing wife left the room. His little girl, her heart 
so sore for her papa, opened the Bible as it lay upon 
the table and pushed it along toward him and said: 
" Do read the Bible, Papa, and ask Jesus to save you; 
and He zvill, Papa, He says He will." He lifted his 
head and she pushed the open page right under his 
eyes, and he read, '^ Him that cometh to me I zvill in 
no wise cast out;'' and the light came to him as 
quickly as it just now came to the candle. He fell 
upon his knees, looking to and trusting Jesus and 
became a saved man. 

Now the last of the light-bearers will come and give 
her text. Here are two candles so close to each 
other that their wicks just touch. I doubt whether 
you can light ono without lighting tho other also* I 



The Candle Sermon 6i 

wonder if this last text will explain this. Listen: 
John i: 43 to 46. '^ Jesics findeth Philip and saith 
nnto him, Follow me, Philip findeth Nathanael and 
saith unto Iiim, We have fonnd him of zvJiom Moses in 
the law and the prophets did zvrite, Jesns of NazaretJi, 
the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, 
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ? 
Philip saith unto him, COME AND SEE." 

Ah, yes ! These two candles represent Philip and 
Nathanael. They were true friends, and truly loved 
each other. Where one went, the other desired to 
go; what one found of truth, he desired the other to 
find also. This is the way it should be with all of us. 
If Jesus has been revealed to us, and we have the 
light, we should not rest from prayer and labor until 
our dear friends are brought to Jesus too. Usually the 
time of our greatest influence upon those near to us 
is when we make the start ourselves. As brother, 
sister and friend see the change in us, and light is 
really shining from our faces, they can not bear to be 
left in darkness, and they come right along with us, 
just as the one candle, close to the other, was so 
quickly lighted when its companion received light. 

Do you not also see another lesson in this } Some 
one who would shine brightly for Jesus is waiting in 
darkness because you do not become a Christian. If 
you start, that one will start with you. So, by refus- 
ing th@ light, yoq ar§ responsible ^ not only for not 
ihining yourself, but for keeping others from shiningo 

Now w§ will iKplain the meanirig of a few texts by 



62 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

experiments with these remaining candles. I Hght 
this one, and it keeps going out as fast as I can Hght it. 
What is the matter 1 Yes, this boy, sitting here, is 
blowing it out ! How foolish in the candle to let a boy 
blow out the light ! Read Eph. iv: 14. " That zve 
henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and 
carried about with every zvind of doctrine, by the slight 
of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in 
wait to deceive.'' 

So this candle represents those who can not make 
up their minds whether the Bible is true or false; 
whether our dear Lord Jesus can be trusted, or whether 
He was a deceiver. They hear about Him one day 
and think they will believe on Him; and then they hear 
some unbelieving infidel woman or man laugh at the 
Christian's faith, and they think they will not be Christ- 
ians. 

Children, be settled in your minds as io Jesus Christ 
and your Bible. Have the courage of your convictions, 
and don't be moved from trusting in Jesus because of 
hard questions that wicked people will put to you. 
They could ask you just as hard questions about the sun 
in the sky, to try and make you believe that there was 
no sun. But the sun would shine down smilingly upon 
the poor silly people all the same. " The preaching 
of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness.'' (I Cor. 
i: 18.) 

If you are afraid of a sneer at the cross of your Sav- 
iour, I should be concerned for your soul lest it be a 
sign that you were to perish, O ! be not of the super- 



Tlie Ca)idlc Sermoii 63 

ficial, unstable, unthinking, half-hearted, undecided, 
cowardly ones of this generation, who can not make 
up their minds about truth. 

I have read of a border state man in our late war, 
who would be a Southern vian when the SotttJiern 
army occupied the country where he lived, and a 
Northern man when the Northern army came. It 
is needless to say that neither side had any respect for 
him, and that he suffered from both sides when his 
duplicity w^as detected. One day a company of 
armed men came to his house and asked him 
whether he was a "Rebel" or a "Yankee." He 
looked at their uniforms so that he could answ^er that 
he was on the same side that they were. But 
they had caught him ! Their uniforms were half 
Southern (gray), and half Northern (blue), and he 
didn't know what to answer. At last, rubbing his 
nose, he said: " Well, gentlemen, I am just nothing 
at all, and mighty ' little of that!" Which was just 
true, and it is just as true of grown up boys and girls 
and men and women in America, w^ho can not make up 
their minds whether to believe in or reject our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

Now please read I Thess. v: 19: " Quench not the 
Spirit.'' You will see the importance of this verse as 
I light this candle, and for a minute it burns up 
brightly, and then as I plunge it into the glass of water 
it is extinguished. I try again to light it, but I can not. 
The wick is wet, and my paper burns out in the vain 
attempt to again rekindle the flame. The most 



64 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

solemn warnings in the Bible are those addressed to 
enlightened ones againvSt turning from Christ. " For 
it is impossible for those zvJio were once enlightened^ 
^ ^ ^ ^jr fj^^y shall fall away^ to renew them 
again tcnto repentance.'" (Heb. vi: 4 and 6.) 

The ^'falling away" here means the giving up 
of Jesus and the denial that he is the Son of God. 
The Holy Spirit of God may be grieved away if 
we commit this sin, or He may leave us if we persist 
in disobeying what we know to be the truth of 
God. How many thousands of young people have felt 
the influence of God's Spirit, and have made some 
efforts to become Christians, and then have given it up. 
They are all like the candle with its wet wick. Some 
of them may again be brought under conviction, and 
the flame of the Holy Spirit may so dry the wet wick 
that they may be re-lighted, but alas ! the most of 
them will be left to the darkness they have chosen. 
" Papa, " said a dying young lady to a wealthy and god- 
less father who was bending in sorrow over her; " one 
year ago I could have become a Christian, but now it is 
too late." She referred to a time when she had been 
almost persuaded to give her heart to God, but 
had been led by her father into the pleasures of 
the world. 

Leaving the wet wicked candle in darkness, we turn 
to this one that has a bottle for a candlestick. We hold 
our burning paper to it and try in vain to give it light. 

You can readily see the reason. The wick of the 
candle is upside down in the neck of the bottle. It 



The Candle Sennon 65 

represents a poor drunkard who loves the bottle more 
than he loves the light ! 

Read Gal. v: 21, for the lesson: ^'' Drttnkenness^ 
revellings, and snch like: they zvhich do snch things 
shall not inJierit the kingdom of God.'' How strange 
it seems that a man would be willing to lose his soul 
for the indulgence of his appetite ! That the blessing 
of eternal life should be spurned for a bottle! I fear that 
there is many a one here to-day in danger of dying in 
darkness because you will be unwilling, when Jesus 
comes to give you light, to give up some darling sin. 
There is a story told of a man who was told by his doctor 
that unless he gave up drink, he must lose his sight. 
It is said that he went to the window and looked out 
upon the blue sky and the green fields, and turning his 
back upon the sunlit scene, he lifted a bottle to his 
lips, saying, " Farewell, sweet light ! " Is it not a 
dreadful thing to so fall into the power of Satan that 
a man would do this t Boys ! never touch the in- 
toxicating cup; refuse the first glass, lest it obtain 
some day the same awful power over you. 

Here is one other candle that I will try to light. 
My text is burning brightly, and I hold it close to the 
wick, but I can not make it burn. You see the 
reason of my failure, A piece of silver covers the 
wick. The word found in II Cor. iv: 4, explains 
the lesson: " The god of this zvorld hath blinded the 
minds of them zuhieh believe not, lest the light of the 
gloinoiis gospel of Christ, zvho is the image of God, 
should shine unto them.'' 



66 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

This candle represents a man who loves money and 
is blinded by it to the value of his soul and the reality 
of heaven. 

Our country has thousands of such men. One 
of them w^as dying not long ago and told his little 
daughter how dreadfully he felt because he must die. 
She said to him: " Why, Papa, you have a beautiful 
home in the city; and a beautiful home in the mount- 
ains; and a beautiful home in Florida; and a beautiful 
home by the sea. Haven't you a beautiful home in 
Heaven, Papa V He was obliged to shake his head 
sadly and say ih'dX he did not knozv. 

Four beautiful homes on earth, some of them only 
occupied for a few brief weeks, and no forethought 
about a home in heaven for eternity ! " What shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose 
his ozvn soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul? " (Matt, xvi: 26.) We must leave this 
candle also in darkness. 

Now, we have one more candle that we must try 
and light. 

It is this one here covered with paper, stained and 
soiled with ink. This is to represent those who feel 
that they have been very great sinners. Read I John 
i: 9, for the lesson. 

^^ If zve confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness.'' 

This candle, the last to be lit, is like those who keep 
away from Jesus because they fear that they are too 



The Candle Sermon 62 

bad to come, and that they must try and make them- 
selves better before He will receive and forgive them. 
They are wrong in this. They can not make them- 
selves better by staying away from the Lord. We 
come as we are, and He makes us better. His own 
word is: " / a7n not come to call the 7'ighteouSy but sin- 
ners to repentance.'' (Matt, ix: 13.) Just as when we 
are sick, \h^ first thing is to go to the doctor, so when 
we feel our sins, the first thing is to go to Jesus. 
Notice now that the first thing I do with this stained 
candle is to liglit it. This represents the sinner 
receiving Jesus. T\i^ first thing Jesus does is to for- 
give us and put His Spirit in us. Now the next thing 
I will do to the candle is to take off its dirty covering. 
See, I slip off the soiled paper, and the candle is 
made clean. So, after we have received the forgive- 
ness of our sins and have the Spirit of Jesus in our 
hearts, He " cleanses us " from our sins. O, may 
every one of the children see the meaning of this 
beautiful verse, and trust in Jesus for forgiveness, and 
for cleansing. Remember, He can not cleanse us 
until Yio, first forgives us. He does not cleanse us in 
order to forgive us; but He forgives us that He may 
cleanse us. There is no cleansing in our being deliv- 
ered from the power of sin, until we first believe the 
word of Jesus that He does forgive us. This is so all 
through our Christian life. As we come with sincere 
confession, our Lord Jesus always has forgiveness; and 
and just in proportion as we believe in the forgiveness, 
will the Spirit of Jesus be cleansing us. O, what a 



The Candle Sermon 69 

precious Saviour Jesus is to all who will come to Him, 
and trust Him. His welcome for all is*just like the 
welcome of the father to the prodigal son. First, the 
kiss of forgiveness; then the cleansing, the robing, and 
the feasting. 

For my closing illustration, read Matt, v: 14 to 16. 
" Ye are the light of the zvorld. A city that is set on 
an hill can not be hid. NeitJier do men light a candle 
and put it under a bnshel, but. on a candlestick ;*and it 
giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your 
light so shine before nien^ that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father ivJiicli is in heaven.'' 

Now I will take one of these candles that are burn- 
ing, and put it under a bushel. This represents those 
who think they believe in Jesus, but they are unwilling 
to confess Him. They do not obey Him in being 
baptized in His name, and in coming to the com- 
munion of His disciples. They are ashamed to tell 
their parents or brothers, sisters or friends that they 
have accepted Him, and purpose to be Christians. 
The result of this is that they soon lose any hope 
that they may have had, and cease to regard them- 
selves as Christians. 

Just as when I lift up the bushel, you find that the 
candle, because it has been shut off from the air, has 
gone out, and is in darkness. 

We can not, children, be secret Christians. Jesus 
says, " He that denieth me before men^ shall be denied 
before the angels of God.'' (Luke xii: 9.) 

No matter what it may cost us, we must confess 



70 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

Jesus as our Lord. We owe this to Him because of 
His confession of us in His sufferings on the cross. 
We owe it to others for whom He died, who may be 
led by our confession to accept Him. We owe it to 
ourselves, for we can not be happy Christians, and 
grow in grace, unless we let our light shine. 

If Daniel and his companions had not confessed 
their faith in Babylon, Israel might have been utterly 
destroyed, instead of being protected and honored, as 
they were. If the little maid from Israel had not 
confessed her God in Syria, Naaman would not have 
been healed of his leprosy, and led to worship the 
true God. 

There is a story of a boy who lived in Antioch of 
Syria, sixteen hundred years ago, when Roman gov- 
ernors put Christians to death because they refused 
to worship the image of the Emperor. This boy 
stood beside his mother in a great crowd, gathered to 
witness the burning of an aged Christian. The gov- 
ernor did not w^ant to burn him, and tried to get him 
to give up God and Jesus, and worship the Roman 
gods. The good man was strengthened by the Spirit 
of God to be faithful to the truth, and as he refused to 
deny his Lord, said: ^^ Ask any child if it be not 
better to worship the one true ^ God who made all 
things, than to bow down to images made by man." 
As he said this, the eyes of the Governor fell upon the 
boy standing near, and not knowing that he was a 
Christian, he called him to the stand and said, " My 
boy, tell this deluded man that he should worship the 



The Candle Sermon ^ 7 1 

gods of Rome, and do homage to the Emperor." 
What was his surprise and anger, as the boy modestly 
but fearlessly made answer: " There is but one 
God; and Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and our 
Saviour." In a rage, the Governor commanded the 
soldiers to strip the boy, and beat him with their cruel 
rods. 

They did this, until the blood ran from his bleeding 
back upon the ground. Then the Governor asked 
him, " Will you now confess the gods of Rome } " 

Again the boy replied: " There is but one God; and 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Saviour." 

" Beat him to death ! " said the enraged Governor; 
and they beat the poor boy until he sank faint and 
dying at his mother's feet. 

" What can your Christ do for you now t " said the 
cruel man to the mother, who, he knew, had taught 
her boy of Jesus. 

" He can help us to pray for our enemies," replied 
the Christian woman, as she gathered her dying boy 
in her arms. 

" Mother," said he, faintly, " I wish I could have 
some water from the well at home." 

" My boy, you shall soon drink from the river of 
the water of life in the Paradise of God." 

And so, the martyr boy of Antioch passed away to 
be with the redeemed in Heaven, but his light has 
been burning brightly for Jesus for sixteen hundred 
years, and its beams are falling upon us to-day. 

Are there not boys and girls here now who will accept 



72 . Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

Jesus as their Saviour, and resolve to openly confess 
Him ? Are there not those who have been hiding 
their light, who will now take it out from under the 
bushel, and from this day identify themselves with the 
followers of Jesus, and be willing to bear reproach for 
His name ? God grant that it may be so. 

How can we expect the crown, if we are unwilling 
to bear the cross ? How can we expect to be with 
the martyrs at the Marriage Supper of our Lord Jesus 
in Glory, if we will not follow the martyrs in sharing 
His rejection ? 





--= aASON 



"Thou shalt Teach Them to thy Children.'* 



I 



THE COMMANDMENTS SERMON. 

Part I . 

How many here have committed to memory the ten 
commandments ? Not many. I am sorry for this. 
Wherever I go, I find that parents and Sunday School 
teachers are, as a rule, neglecting the command of 
God to teach His law to the children. Read Deut. vi: 
4 to 7: " Hear, Israel: The Lord ottr God is one 
Lord: And thoii shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
tliine hearty and with all thy sotd, and with all thy 
might. And these zuords, wliicJi I command thee this 
day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach 

THEM DILIGENTLY UNTO THY CHILDREN." 

In Deut. x: 2 and 4, we learn that God Himself 
wrote the words of the ten commandments on the 
tables of stone prepared by Moses. 

We have only two other instances in the Bible 

where the Lord Himself WTote anything. Here, He 

writes His holy law. His righteous requirements for 

man. In Dan. v: 5 and 6, and 25 to 28, He WTites 

the condemnation of man under that law. In John 

viii: 5 to II, He writes that He may provide a way to 

justify one who had broken the law. Surely if I loved 

God, I would learn the words that He thought it so 

important to give me. 

74 







Moses Receiving the Law, 



76 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

Now will all the congregation please stand, and all 
who can do so, repeat aloud with me the Ten Com- 
mandments. 

1 . Tlion sJialt have no other gods before me. 

2. TJion shalt not make unto thee any graven image ^ 
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, 
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water 
under the earth; 

Tliou shalt not boiv doivn tliyself to them, nor 
serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God, visiting tlie iniquity of the fathers tipon the 
cliildren unto the third and fourth generation of them 
that hate me ; 

And shewing mercy unto tliousands of tliem that 
love me, and keep my commandments, 

3. Thou shalt not take tlie name of the Lord thy God 
in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that 
taketh his name in vain. 

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 
Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy zvork: 
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy 

God: in it thou shalt not do any zvork, thou, nor thy 
son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid- 
servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
ivitliin thy gates: 

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
day : zvherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and 
hallowed it. 

5. Honour thy father and thy mother : that thy days 



TJie Comina7idments Sermon yy 

may be long upon the land zvJiich the Lord thy God 
giveth thee, 

6. TIioii shalt not kill, 

7. TJioit shalt not commit aduttery. 

8. TJioit shalt not steal. 

9. TJioii shalt not bear false zvitness against thy 
neighbour, 

10. Thozc shalt not covet thy neighbour s Jiouse, tJioii 
shalt not covet thy neighbour s wife^ nor his man-serv- 
ant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor 
anything that is thy neighbour s. 




Please be seated. You will notice that I have here 
on the table, ten beautiful vases. I want these to 
represent to you the commandments we have just 
repeated, while I try and teach you how dreadfully 
men and women, boys and girls, break these com- 
mandments, and what a dreadful condition they would 
be in for breaking them, but for our Lord Jesus Christ. 

I will tell you a story I heard some years ago, 
out in Illinois, of a boy who broke the command- 
ments. He was not a particularly bad boy, and what 
he did might have been done by almost any boy here, 
if that boy was without the spirit of God in his heart. 
Now, as I tell you the story, I want you to pay close 
attention, for I shall ask you, after the story, what 



78 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

Commandments this boy broke, and ]iow he broke 
them. 

It was Sunday morning. Willie's mother had 
put on his clean collar and prepared him for Sunday 
School and church. As he started from the house 
with his Bible under his arm, she said to him, " Willie, 
go straight to Sunday School; do not stop to play on 
the way; do you hear.^" 

" Yes, Marm," said Willie; and off he went across 
the fields to the little country church. 

As he was about half way to the church, he came to 
a boy, named Sam, who was standing under a tree be- 
side the path. 

Sam was a bad boy. His father and mother did not 
worship God and never went to church, and Sam 
never went to Sunday School, but loafed around the 
tavern bar-room and stables, and learned to say bad 
words and do bad things. There are just such boys 
and girls in every community, and Satan uses them to 
make other boys and girls bad. This is the reason 
that your parents and teachers warn you not to play 
with them. It is not because they are poor, and not 
as well dressed as you may be, but because they use 
bad language and do wrong things. Some of the best 
children I know, and those I am glad to see my chil- 
dren play with, are children of poor parents, and live 
in humble homes. But in those homes, the Bible is 
read, and the voice of prayer is heard, and the chil- 
dren are taught to fear God, obey their parents, and 
love one another. Make the children of such homes 



The Commandments Sermon 79 

your playmates, and they will not lead you wrong. 
But shun, as you would shun the small-pox, a girl or a 
boy that would teach you bad words, lend you a bad 
book, ask you to steal, or laugh at you for minding 
your mother. They are bad, and if you go with 
them, they will make you bad. 

When Willie came along the path toward Sam, 
Sam heard marbles rattling in Willie's pocket. They 
should not have been there; but Willie, unbeknown to 
his mother, had taken the things collected in his 
every day trousers pocket, and put them in his Sunday 
trousers pocket. Your mothers all know what a queer 
lot of things boys get into their pockets. I have seen 
a mother turning a boy's pockets inside out upon the 
table, as she mended his torn trousers, and it was a 
sight ! A piece of chewing gum, sticking to the cloth; 
a fish hook caught by the barb; some matches; a wal- 
nut whistle; some nails; some marbles, angle-worms 
and a piece of molasses candy, all stuck together ! 
Well, you laugh ! but I expect there are just such 
pockets here to-day. Now I don't blame you for your 
pockets, and these things in them. Pockets were 
made to put things in. And what is a boy going to do 
with those few things that he comes across that he 
cant put in his stomach ! Of course, he must put 
them in his pocket, and trade them off for something 
that will go into his stomach. The point in my 
lesson, however, is that when you go to church or 
Sunday School, leave your marbles, gum-drops and 
playthings at home, lest you be tempted as Willie 
was, by having them with you. 



8o Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

As Sam heard the marbles he pricked up his ears, 
and said, " Hullo, Bill." " Hullo, Sam," said Willie. 
" Got your marbles ? " said Sam. " Yes," said Willie, 
bringing out a handful of nice, new marbles, that 
made Sam's eyes shine. " Let's have a game," said 
Sam, " See what a nice smooth path this is, and 
nobody won't see yer." Willie looked at the path, and 
then looked all around, and nobody was in sight, and, 
he thought nobody saw him. There was one direction 
in which he did not look, and where there was an eye 
looking straight at him. What direction was that } 

Yes, up. One of the most useful texts in the Bible 
for us all, old and young, is, " Thou God seest me.'* 
When you are tempted to do wrong, repeat that text 
slowly, three times, and unless you are very foolish 
indeed, and very much under the power of Satan, you 
will not do the evil thing. Many years ago, when I 
was a soldier, I was riding one day by the side of my 
commander, General Howard, and he told me a story 
about this text that I have never forgotten. It was a 
text that he thought a great deal of, and used to 
repeat over, often, when he was in battle. His 
mother, I believe, had taught it to him, and had, when 
he was a boy, told him this story. A small boy had 
been put to bed by his mother, at the house of a rela- 
tive where she was visiting. The bed-room was on 
the first floor, and an open window looked out upon 
an orchard, where ripe fruit was hanging upon the 
trees. After the mother had heard his prayer, and 
kissed him good night, the little boy saw the open 



The Commandments Sermon 8i 

window, saw the beautiful fruit on the trees, and with 
the way made so easy for him to cHmb out and get 
some of it, there came the temptation to do it. So 
out of bed he got, and out of the window he dropped, 
and stood with his hand reached up to take a ripe 
peach, when he saw, through the branches above 
him, the shining of a bright star. Instantly the text 
which he had forgotten, came to his mind; and, with 
the words " Thou God seest me'' sounding in his 
ears, he left his peach, turned and ran to the window, 
climbed in and got into bed, and pulled the bed clothes 
over his head, he was^o frightened. 

But, Willie, perhaps, had never learned this verse; 
at any rate he did not look up. Sam made a ring 
upon the path; Willie put in his marbles, and Sam his, 
and they began to play. Pretty soon an accident 
occurred. While they were playing, Willie had sent 
Sam's marble a good way down the path, and Sam, 
when he came to play, had to shoot pretty hard to get 
it back. Right beside the path there was a puddle of 
water, in a sort of ditch, and into this Sam's marble 
rolled. Sam ran after it, and put his hand down into 
the muddy water where he thought it had gone. He 
did not find it, and presently Willie rolled up the 
sleeve of his Sunday jacket, and his clean cuff, and 
came to search with him. While Sam's back was 
turned, Willie's fingers touched the marble; he saw 
that Sam was not looking, and quicker than I can tell 
it, a thought came into his mind. All the boys knew 
of Sam's agate; it was a very perfect one, and would 



82 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

shoot very straight; WilHe had often wished that he 
had it. Here was his opportunity, and he shpped the 
agate into his pocket. Then, rising up, he said, 
" Well, Sam, I don't see what could have become of 
it. I can't stay any longer, or I will be late to Sunday 
School. I hope you will find it, Sam," and off he 
went to Sunday School, with the Bible, that contains 
God's ten commandments, under his arm.* 

Now, I want you to tell which of the command- 
ments were broken by Willie that Sunday morning, in 
the less than ten minutes he spent under that tree. 
As you tell me, I will take the vase that represents 
that commandment, and with this hammer, break it 
before your eyes. 

Now, hold up your hand, any one that has thought 
of a commandment that Willie broke. 

A boy's hand is held up. Well, what com- 
mandment do you say .^ The fourth } What com- 
mandment is that t " Remember the Sabbath day to 
keep it holy,'' Yes, he broke that commandment by 
playing with a bad boy upon the public way. 

Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep it Holy. 

Children, you will be greatly tempted, as you grow up, 
to disregard God's command as to the Sabbath. Rail- 
road and steamboat excursions, Sunday newspapers, 
baseball games, and bicycle touring are rapidly 
making us a nation of Sabbath breakers; but God's 
will as to His holy day has not changed. Those 



The Coviniandmenis Serjnon 83 

who disregard the Lord's day show that they do 
not care for God; those who regard it as holy, 
with the motive to please God, shall have His 
promise fulfilled to them, and shall find that " /;/ 
keeping His coinniandments there is great reiuard.'' 
I wish every boy here would commit to memory 
Isa. Iviii: 13, 14. ^'^ If thoti turn away thy foot 
from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my 
holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of 
the Lord, honourable; and shall honour him, not doing 
thine own ways, nor finding their own pleasure, 
nor speaking thine own zvords : Then shall thou 
delight thyself in the Lord; and I zvill cause thee 
to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee 
with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth 
of the Lord hath spoken it.'' 

Boys, stand by the Sabbath, and God will bless 
you. No matter what ungodly newspapers and 
wicked men may say, be true to your Bibles, and 
obey God rather than man. The more it costs you to 
do this, the more blessing will you receive in doing it. 

O, how sadly thoughtless and indifferent to all this 
was this boy Willie ! He wanted the fun of playing 
marbles, and forgot about everything else, in having his 
few minutes' fun. Has not this been the case with 
many of you t Yes, he broke the fourth commandment, 
the commandment represented by this beautiful vase, 
which must be broken to impress upon you this lesson. 
There! I have struck the blow, and the vase is 
in fragments. How easily I did it ! I presume days 



84 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

were taken to make the vase; but I broke it in a 
second. I could not possibly have made a vase like 
this, but I had no difficulty in destroying it. * A minute 
ago the vase was whole, perfectly adapted to the pur- 
pose of its creation; now it is in pieces, and can never 
again be made whole. Do you not see how, in 
all these points, our breaking the law of God is 
illustrated .^ How easily a boy can sin, and break 
God's holy law ! But, when he has done it, he can 
never repair it. 

Now, can you think of any other commandment 
that Willie broke 1 

Here is a girl holding up her hand. Well, what 
commandment have you thought of } The fifth } 
What commandment is that } " Honour thy father and 
thy mother.'' Yes, that is the fifth commandment, 
represented by this beautiful vase. 

Honour thy Father and thy Mother. 

How did he break that commandment } " His 
mother told him to go straight to Sunday school, and 
he didn't do it." That is right. He disobeyed his 
mother. Let us all be careful to remember that when 
we disobey father or mother, we break God's com- 
mandment. 

Another way in which he broke this commandment. 
He did things out of the sight of his parents, which he 
knew they would disapprove, and which he knew 
were contrary to their teachings. This was not to their 



The Commandments Sermon 85 

honor, but to their direct dishonor. When Sam went 
home that day, you can imagine a conversation some- 
thing like this: " Sam, where have you been all the 
morning ? I have wanted you half a dozen times to 
bring wood and water." And Sam replies, " Well, 
Mother, I'd have been back sooner, but Willie Jones 
came along and we had a game of marbles and my 
agate went into the ditch and I have been hunting for 
an hour to find it." " Willie Jones playing marbles 
with you ! You don't mean Deacon Jones' son } " 
" Yes, Marm, he's the one, and I'll bet 'most anything 
he has got my agate. He came and hunted a while, 
and then said he'd have to go or he'd be late to Sun- 
day School; and I have pawed over every inch in the 
puddle and can't find the agate. I just know he's got 
it." "Deacon Jones' son playing marbles with my 
boy Sunday morning, and stealing his marble ! Well, 
when Mrs. Jones comes down here again to invite me 
to go to church and to teach me how to bring up my 
children, if I don't talk to her ! And that old hypo- 
crite Deacon Jones, talking to your father about the 
sin of carrjdng off some of his wood, and here his own 
boy stealing marbles ! " 

That is the way ungodly people talk about your 
good parents when you do wrong. Let no boy or 
girl forget that when you go with boys or girls that 
your father and mother would not have you go with, 
or go to places where they would not have you go, or 
do things they would not have you do, you break 
God's fifth commandment, just as I now break this 



86 Gospel Pictures and Story Sei'inons 

beautiful vase. There, it is gone forever. I have 
broken, but I can never repair it. Is there a boy or 
a girl here that can say they have never broken this 
commandment .^ I can not see a single hand lifted; 
and I can see upon all of your faces the admission of 
guilt.* O, how true the Bible is when it says: " All 
have sinned,'' 

Thou Shalt not Steal. 

Now, what other commandment can any one think 
of that Willie broke t Well, my boy, your hand is 
lifted; what commandment do you say that he broke } 
The eighth } What does the eighth commandment 
say } ^' Thou shalt not steal.'' That is right. Well, 
how did he break that commandment .^ '' By stealing 
the agate." But did he not find the agate .^ Is it 
stealing to find things 1 " If you keep them when 
you know who they belong to, it is," says this girl. 
Yes, you are right, my child. There is no doubt but 
that that would be stealing. Then another important 
thing to remember is, that if I find a thing, and don't 
let it be known that I have found it, and don't try to 
find the owner, it is reckoned as stealing, both by the 
law of God and the law of man. God's rule — " Do 
tinto others as you zvould have otJiers do unto you " — 
kept in the heart is the only really safe way to keep 
from breaking the eighth commandment. 

You will all meet with temptations just like this to 
Willie, many times in your life, by having the oppor- 



The Commandments Sermon 87 

tunity of getting something that belongs to some one 
else, in ways that many would argue are not wrong. 
Test them all by the Saviour's golden rule. I knew of 
a little boy who came home from school one day and 
showed a beautiful knife to his father, saying, " O, 
Papa, see what a beautiful knife I have found ! " 
^* Where did you find it, my boy.^" said the father. 
" In the school-house yard," said the boy. " Well," 
said the father, " this is a peculiar kind of knife; do 
you know of any boy in the school that had a knife 
like this V " Pat Shirley had one that looked a little 
like it," said the boy, rather uneasily. " Have you 
been to him to see if he has lost his knife V said the 
father. ** No, sir," was the reply. " Does Pat Shir- 
ley know what kind of a knife you carry .^" "Yes, 
sir." " If you were to lose your knife, and Pat should 
find it, wouldn't you like to have him come and see if 
you had lost it.?" "Yes, sir."" "Well, hadn't you 
better go and see if this isn't Pat's knife.?" " Yes, 
sir," said the boy slowly, not nearly so prompt to go 
to Pat as he had been for Pat to come to him. Of 
course, the knife was Pat Shirley's, and the boy was 
being tempted to keep that which did not belong to 
him. -* 

Well, here is the pure and beautiful vase that 
represents the eighth commandment; and as Willie in 
the twinkling of ^n eye broke the commandment by 
putting Sam's marble into his pocket instead of hand- 
ing it to Sam, so with one blow I smash this vase into 
pieces; and, like Willie, I have done something that I 
can never undo. 



88 



Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 



Was there any other commandment broken by 
Willie ? Yes. Here is a hand held up. Well, my 
girl, what commandment do you charge Willie with 
breaking } The ninth } And what does the ninth 
commandment say .^ " Thou shalt not bear false ivit- 
ness against thy neighbour ^ In other words, ^^ Thou 
shalt not lie,'' 



Thou Shalt not Lie. 

To tell a wrong story about anything is to break 
the ninth commandment. Who did Willie lie to t 
Yes; he lied to his mother in not going straight to 
Sunday School when he said he would, and he lied to 
Sam in deceiving him about his agate. How easily he 
did it ! It seems as though he couldn't help doing it, it 
was so easy. Was it not just so the other day when 
you told a lie to your mother t Or you to your teacher } 
Or you to your brother or sister } It is easy to do 
wrong, and hard to do right. There is no question 
about that. Any coward can tell a lie; but it takes a 
brave boy to speak the truth. The weeds w411 grow in 
the garden without the owner having to w^ork a bit; 
but how hard he must work if he would have fruit and 
flowers. But weeds that grow easily are worthless; 
and the fruit and flowers are valuable. So, let us all 
remember, that though it may be ea^y to tell lies and 
hard to speak the truth, the boy who tells lies is grow- 
ing weeds; and the boy who speaks the truth is grow- 
ing fruits and flowers. Children are very timid and 



The Coviniandments Sermon 89 

fear being blamed and punished, and are greatly 
tempted when big people frown and scowl and say 
with a dreadful voice, ^' Did you do this ?" to answer 
with a lie to shield themselves. This, like everything 
else that is done contrary to God's law, is a mistake. 
Children that lie get by far the most whippings. They 
soon get found out, and nobody trusts them. And, 
thinking they can escape punishment by lying, they 
become careless and reckless in doing wrong, and are 
always in trouble. O, boys and girls, don't be cow- 
ards ! Tell the truth, though it would seem to cost 
you your life. A life saved by lying is hardly worth 
saving. God loves the truth, and hates lies. We 
can not be in heaven with God if we tell lies. 

If any boy or girl here has told a lie to any one this 
week, I will tell you how you may do something that 
will make you very careful as long as you live about 
telling a lie to that person. Go and confess to them 
that you told a lie and ask their forgiveness, and then 
ask God, for Jesus' sake, to forgive you. Make this 
your rule all through life, and you will overcome the 
dreadful sin of lying. 

Now I break the vase that represents the ninth com- 
mandment. How many of you show by your faces a 
sorrow that so beautiful and useful an article should be 
so destroyed; you shrink back and say Oh ! to your- 
selves as I strike the blow that shatters it. Do 
you know that this is a little like what you make the 
Lord Jesus, the angels and all good people feel when 
you do wrong and break God's beautiful laws ? Q^, 



90 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

that you would remember this when you are tempted 
to he, steal or disobey your parents. You might also 
remember that every time you break a commandment 
you make Satan and wicked people happy, just as 
a bad boy here loves to see me break these vases, and 
says to himself with a grin on his face, " That is what 
I like; break some more; break some more. It is 
almost as good as smashing windows." In I John iii: 
8, we read: " He that coimnitteth sUt is of the devil.'* 
That is a very solemn word for us all. 

I wonder if there is another commandment broken 
by Willie that morning 1 Yes, here are hands held up. 

Thou Shalt not Covet. 

Well, my boy, tell us what other command- 
ment he broke, and how he broke it. " He broke the 
tenth commandment by coveting Sam's marble. The 
commandment is: Thou shalt not covet ^ ^ ^ 
anything thing that is thy ncigJibour s,'' Yes, he cer- 
tainly broke that commandment. What is it to covet t 
" To want anything that don't belong to you," says the 
girl. Well, that is a good answer. Many say that there 
is no sin in wanting things that belong to other people if 
we don't try to take them away from them, but 
the Word of God says different. I must not allow the 
evil desire in my heart. I know how difficult this 
is for boys and girls and men and women to do. Yet 
I know that God's law is right, and that we should do 
it. I also know that in breaking this commandment 



The Commandments Sermon 91 

we prove the sinfulness of our hearts, and our need of 
a Saviour. Read Romans vii: 7: " Nay, I had not 
knozvn sin, but by the lazv, for I had not known licst^ 
except the lazv had said, Thou shalt not covet,'' 

When we are told not to want things, isn't it 
strange that the very command makes us want them ? 
O, children our hearts are evil, and only Jesus can 
deliver us and make us good. Now, I take this tenth 
vase that represents the tenth commandment, and I 
must break it to pieces. I am sorry to do it. It, with the 
vase representing the first commandment, on the other 
side of the table is larger and more beautiful than all 
the others. But it is my own property, bought 
and paid for, and I sacrifice it in this way for your 
good, to impress God's truth upon your minds. Do 
you not see that this thought was in God's mind when 
he gave Jesus to die for you } 

I wonder how many of you, as you see me about to 
break my vase, feel that you would like to have it for 
your own } Why ! how many hands are lifted ! But 
" TJiou shalt not covet.'' The commandment repre- 
sented by the vase is broken, and the vase must be 
broken, too, to impress the lesson. 

O, how easy it is to be sinners ! With what little 
effort we break God's holy law ! But I am sure, as 
you look upon these broken fragments, you see what 
a dreadful thing it is to go on through life breaking 
the commandments of God. Think of Willie, as he 
reaches Sunday School, standing up and repeating 
the t§n commandments, and then being asked by his 



92 Gospel Picttu^es and Story Sermons 

teacher " What is sin ?" and he answers, " Sin is the 
transgression of the lazv.'' (I John iii: 4.) Then — 
"What is the penalty of sin?" and he answers, 
" The zvages of sin is DEATH.'' (Ro. vi: 23.) Poor 
WilHe. How ghbly he answers; how Httle he thinks 
of his own dreadful condition ! Is it not just the same 
with many that are here? Have you not sinned, and 
are you not condemned by God's law just as truly as 
he ? And yet you do not feel your sins. Now, do you 
know that you never can be saved until 5^ou do feel 
your sins ? for you will never know Jesus as yonr 
Saviour until you realize why He had to come and die 
upon the cross for you, just as if you were the only 
one that had broken God's law. 

Now, this may be enough for one lesson, and I will 
give another day the closing part of my Command- 
ments Sermon. 



THE COMMANDMENTS SERMON. 

Part II. 

To bring before your minds why Jesus died upon 
the cross, I will tell you another story. 

My story will illustrate the teaching of one of the 
most beautiful verses in the Bible (Isaiah Ixiii: 6.) 
Will you all repeat the verse with me: 

" All we like sheep have gone astray; zue have tiunied 
every one to his ozvn way : and the Lord hath laid upon 
him the iniquity of us all.'' 

Once upon a time a schoolmaster thought he would 
try and teach the boys of his school the use and neces- 
sity of government and rules of order. He prepared 
carefully the rules that he thought best for securing 
good order in his school, and after reading and explain- 
ing them to the boys, he invited their criticism and 
asked for their objections. No boy had anything to 
say against the rules, but all thought them very good. 
Then the master asked all who were in favor of adopt- 
ing and being governed by the rules to hold up their 
hands. Every boy held up his hand. Then the 
master said, " Well, boys, what shall be done in case 
any boy breaks one of the rules } You all consent that 
the rules are good and ought to be kept, but do you 

93 




'All We like Sheep have gone Astray." 



The Commaiidmeiits Sermon 95 

not all know that there are careless boys who will for- 
get; and other boys who will get into a bad temper and 
be reckless; and that a boy with a ba(i disposition may 
hate the rules after a while and determine to break 
them down if he can ? Now, I want you to talk it 
over and agree upon what you think ought to be done 
in any case of violation of the rules, and if I approve 
of your report I will see that it is done." 

After considerable discussion the boys agreed to 
report to the master that he should have a birch 
switch, and if any boy broke the rules he was to be 
called before the school, made to remove his jacket, 
and have ten strokes from the stick given him. The 
master accepted the report, procured the switch, and 
the school commenced. I have no doubt but the fact 
that they were under law, and the sight of the rod, 
made some of the boys just long to break a rule, and 
to be restless until they had done it. This is the state- 
ment of the Bible. The law brings out the evil that 
is in us, " that sin by the commandment might become 
exceeding sinfuL'' (Ro. vii: 13.) We do not know 
how bad our hearts are until we, try to live according 
to rule, with a birch stick before us. How precious it 
is that when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, and His 
Spirit comes into our hearts, we are no longer under law 
but under grace. We love Jesus and try our best to 
do right because we want to please Him, and not 
because of the birch stick. 

It was not long before the rules were broken in such 
a way that it would not do for the master to overlook 



96 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

it, and the boy who had been guilty of the offence (whom 
we will call Harry), was called to the front of the desk. 

" Harry," said the master, " did you do so and so ? " 
" Yes, sir," said Harry " Did you not know that you 
were breaking the rules?" "Yes, sir." "Well," 
said the master, taking down his rod, " You know 
what I am compelled to do. Take off your jacket, 
Harry." The boy's face grew red as he looked up 
and said, " Please, Master, mayn't I keep on my 
jacket.^" "No," said the master, "you know what 
the boys decided should be the punishment, and I 
promised that their decision should be carried out. I 
must do just what I said I would." Children, do you 
not see that our good God, because He is good, must 
punish sin, and must punish it just as He has said He 
would } Let no one deceive you about this. God has 
said, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die.'' (Ez. xviii: 
20.) He has made death the penalty for sin, " And 
so death passed upon alhnen, for that all have sinned.'' 
(Ro. v: 12.) " There is no difference ; for all have 
sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Ro. iii: 
22 and 23.) Do you not see, children, that just as the 
master was obliged to punish Harry, or make himself 
a liar, so God is obliged to punish our sin, or He will 
be untrue to His own word } 

Harry fumbled around the upper button of his coat 
for a minute, and then with his face very red, and his 
lip quivering, he said piteously, " Please, Master, do 
let me keep on my jacket." There was evidently 
something in this punishment for breaking the rules 



The Commandments Sermon 97 

that looked far different to Harry, as he had to meet 
it, than it had looked as he sat in his seat, a thought- 
less boy, only regarding the fun of doing what he 
wanted to do. 

Children, be sure that it will be just the same 
for all who, by rejecting the Saviour, have to meet 
God's punishment for sin. " Shame and everlasting 
contempt'' (Danl. xii: 2), is the Bible word to describe 
their feeling when they stand at the last day before 
their judge. 

" Harry," said th® master, " I can not excuse you. 
Take off your jacket." Harry unbuttoned the upper 
part of his coat, and slipped it partly off from his 
left shoulder, and then with tears in his eyes looked 
pleadingly to the master. O, how the master's heart 
was touched, as he saw why the poor boy felt so bad ! 

Harry's father was dead, and his mother was very 
poor, and she had sent him to school that day 
with nothing on under his jacket! " What can I do 
for the boy V thought the master. " I don't want 
him to suffer this humiliation; but how can I provide a 
way to excuse him without breaking my word, and 
destroying my government over the school 1 " 

Children, the Bible teaches us that this was just the 
way our good God, our kind Heavenly Father, felt 
toward us. He must keep His word and punish sin; 
and yet He loved the sinner and longed to save him. 
" / have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, 
saith the Lord God.'' (Ez. xviii: 32.) Do you not 
see that the kind master had no pleasure in the 



98 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

thought of punishing Harry, but was in trouble to 
know how he might dehver him ? This is God's 
heart toward you: this is the meaning of the sweet 
word of John iii: i6: ^^ For God so loved the worlds 
that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not i?erish, but have everlasting 
lifer 

Now Hsten to what happened while the master 
was in this trouble between his desire to deliver 
Harry, and his duty to punish sin, and you will 
see zvhy God gave His Son to save you. 

The boys had seen Harry's trouble, and were all 
sorry for him, but one boy was more sorry than any of 
the rest. His name was Johnny, a playmate of 
Harry's, and perhaps the master's favorite, as the 
best boy in school. He loved Harry dearly, and as he 
saw the compassion on the master's face, he seemed 
to feel that perhaps he could help the master out* 
of his difficulty, and could deliver Harry ! With this 
thought he eagerly lifted his hand and said, " Master, 
won't you let me take Harry's place, and let Harry sit 
down. Master.^" 

I am sure that the master was deeply touched by 
this request. His authority and government were 
honored. He was not asked to forgive Harry, and 
nothing be done to punish the transgression. But an- 
other offered to take the transgressor's place, and pay 
his debt. Children, this was just what the offer of 
the dear Son of God meant, when He said to his 
Heavenly Father that He would come into the world, 



The Commandments Sermon 99 

and, in the form of man, die for our sins. When 
there was no eye to pity, and no arm to save, Jesus 
rose up from His place, and looking down upon the 
awful consequences that we must suffer for our sins, 
said, " Lo ! I come to do thy zvill^ O God. (Heb. 
x: 9.) Let me take their place; let me bear their 
iniquities." 

The master thought for a moment. " Can I do 
this } What is the object of punishment ? To make 
the boys respect my authority, and reverence law. 
Will this be accomplished if Johnny is punished in- 
stead of Harry .'^ Yes, I believe it will. The boys 
will recognize that I respect my own laws, and that I 
value my word, and could not overlook the offence. 
They will also see, in my permitting Johnny to take 
Harry's place, that I punish not the sinner, but the 
sin. They know that I love Johnny, and as they see 
me punishing him, they will have an impression made 
upon them as to how deeply I hate the violation of 
my rules, in a w^ay that the punishment of Harry 
could not have made. And as to its effect upon 
Harry, I believe it will make him more truly penitent, 
and do him more good, than his own punishment 
would have done. Let me be sure that Harry is re- 
pentant, and I believe I can safely do this." Then, 
turning to Harry, he said: " Harry, are you willing 
that Johnny should take your place .^" "Yes, Mas- 
ter, I am sorry to have Johnny hurt; but he knows 
why I don't want to take off my jacket, and I think 
it's real good of him to offer to take my whipping, and 



lOO Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

I'll never forget it." "Harry, do you feel that you 
deserve this whipping ? " " Yes, Master, I know I 
do. I broke the rules, and you ought to keep your 
word." "Well, Harry, if I let Johnny take your 
place, and forgive you, w^ill you try and be a faith- 
ful and good boy from this time, and keep the rules.?" 
" Yes, Master; I wdll try just as hard as I can. I 
am real sorry that I did wrong and have made you 
this trouble, and that Johnny has got to suffer for 
me." Children, it is something in this same way that 
the thought of Jesus dying for us leads us to repent- 
ance toward God. 

The master then said to Johnny, " Johnny, if you 
take off your coat, and I strike you ten times with the 
rod, it will hurt you. Have you thought of this 1 
Are you willing to be hurt for something you have 
never done } " Up went Johnny's hand, as he quickly 
replied, " Yes, sir, I am. If you will only let Harry 
off, I am willing to take it, sir." Ah ! the dear boy 
loved Harry, and because his little heart was filled 
with love, he could say this. This was the spirit of 
our dear Lord Jesus, of whom we read, " For tlie 
joy that zvas set before him endured the cross, despis- 
ing the shame,'' (Heb. xii: 2.) The joy of Johnny 
was twofold. He honored the master, by suffering 
the penalty of the broken rules and opening up a way ^^ 
for the master to show the compassion that was inli 
his heart toward Harry: and he delivered his dear 
friend from suffering and shame. This is exactly 
what is meant by the joy of the Lord Jesus in His 
sufferings for sinners. 



The Coinmandments Semiioii lOi 

"Well," said the master, "Harry, sit down. 
Johnny, take off your coat." And, with the room so 
still that you could hear a pin drop, the master 
counted, one, two, three, four, and so on, up to ten; 
bringing down the rod on the back of Johnny as he 
counted. O, how Harry felt as he heard those blows! 
How sorry for his sin; how full of love to Johnny, his 
deliverer, and to the master for his compassion; and 
how earnestly resolving to be a better boy. Children, 
as we see our blessed Lord Jesus, baring His back to 
the smiters, and nailed to the cross of shame, let us 
try and take it home to our hearts that " He was 
ivonnded for our transgressions'^ he zvas bruised for 
our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon 
him; and with his stripes zve are healed.'' O, how 
little Harry had to love Johnny for, compared with 
what we have to love our dear Lord Jesus for! I 
don't think the master let the rod come down very 
hard upon Johnny, but when Jesus was stripped and 
tied to the Roman whipping post, the brawny-armed 
Roman soldier did not spare Him. Long blue and 
black welts, and broken skin, and trickling blood, 
came with every stroke. " His visage zvas so marred 
more than any man, and his form more than the sons 
of men.'' (Isa. lii: 14.) O, let us look upon Him and 
hear Him say: 

" I suffered much for thee, 

More than thy tongue can tell, 

Of bitterest agony, 
To rescue thee from hell; 

I've borne, I've borne it all for thee, 

What hast thou borne for me ? ** 



102 Gospel Pictures and Stojy Sermons 

There is not a boy here, but would say, *^ If Harry 
hadn't loved Johnny, and felt thankful to him for what 
he had done, he would have been a mean, ungrateful 
boy, and unworthy of such a friend." But, O, how 
many there are for whom Jesus suffered and died, who 
have never thanked Him, and who do not love Him. 
Children, let it not be so with you any longer. Open 
your hearts to Jesus as your Saviour. Believe in 
God's word that your sins are forgiven you when you 
accept Christ, because He has borne your punishment; 
and begin the life of a child of God, praying every 
day to your Saviour, and seeking every day to do His 
will. In making this start, be clear in one thing, and 
you will go right all the way. Jesus has borne for you 
the curse due to sin, and you have never to bear it. 
This is the meaning of Romans viii: i: " There is 
therefore now 7io condemnation to them which are in 
Christ JesMS.'' 

If the master the next day had called up Harry, 
and said: ^^ Harrj^ did you break the rules yester- 
day.^ " and Harry had replied: "Yes, master," and 
then the master had said: " Did you receive the 
punishment 1 " and Harry had said: " No, master: 
You let Johnny take the punishment: " and then the 
master h'ad said: " Well, Harry, take off your coat; 
you must receive the punishment now;" every boy 
in the school would have lifted up his 'hand and said: 
" That ain't fair, master. Johnny said he would take 
Harry's punishment if you would let Harry off; and 
you gave the punishment to Johnny. " No; it wouldn't 



The Commandments Sermon 



103 



have been fair. The master could not have done it. 
And when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we must 
never so dishonor our good God as to let Satan make 
us believe for a moment that God would give His dear 
Son to bear the punishment of our sins, and then pun- 
ish those who repent and believe on Him, just the 
same as if He had not borne the punishment. O 
children, when you feel willing in your hearts to come 
to Jesus and give up your sins, be happy in knowing 
from God's own word that " He that heareth, and 
believeth, hath everlasting life, and SHALL NOT COME 
INTO JUDGMENT." (John V. 24.) 

"God will not payment twice demand: 
First, from my blessed Saviour's hand, 
And then again from me. ' ' 





<*Create Within Me a Clean Heart, O God." 



SERMON ON THE HEART. 

Now, children, as I turn my blackboard around, I 
am going to show you a photograph of a licart. 

How many of you have ever had a photograph of 
your face taken ? 

My ! Every person here seems to have their hand 
lifted up ! What a profitable business it must be to 
take photographs ! I fear my business of photograph- 
ing the heart will not prove as popular, though I be- 
lieve it will prove far more to your advantage than the 
other. My picture is made up of what the Bible 
teaches us about how sin comes into us all. You will 
shudder as you look at it. 

Here it is ! 




lo6 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

The Bad Heart. 

Now, let the boys and girls to whom I have given 
the verses describing the heart read, as called for. 

Luke vi: 45 : " The good man out of the good treas- 
ure of HIS HEART bri7igeth forth that which is good; 
and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth 
that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the 
heart his mouth speaketh.'' 

Gal. v: 19 to 21 : " Now the works of the flesh are 
manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, 
lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jeal- 
ousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, 
drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of tJie zvhich I 
forezva7m you, even as I did forewarn you, that they 
zvhich practise such things shall not inheiHt the king- 
dom of God.'' 

Matt, xv: 19: ^'' For out of THE HEART come forth 
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, 
false witness, railings: these are the things zvhich de- 
file the man.'' 

John xiii: 2: " And during supper, the devil hav- 
ing already put into THE HEART of Judas Iscariot, 
Simon's son, to betray him." 

Acts v: 3 and 4: ^' But Peter said, Ananias, zvhy 
hath Satan filled THY HEART to lie to the Holy 
Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land ? 
Whiles it remained, did it not remain thine own ? and 
after it was sold, was it not in thy power? How is it 
that thou hast conceived this thing in THY HEART?" 



Sermon on the Heart 107 

I trust you have been looking at my picture as these 
verses have been read. I wonder if you see anything 
in the picture that reminds you of things in your own 
heart ? Now let us be honest and true, every one ! 
And all of you that have had anything in your heart 
like the picture, raise your hand ! I do not see any 
one with their hand down ! Dear me ! I have had 
to put up my own ! Well, let us get to work, and see 
what can be done with this evil heart. Suppose we 
begin by trying to drive out some of these bad guests. 

Here is ^^Hate," in this big room on the right. 
Let us get him out. To have hate in the heart makes 
people act hateful, and look hateful. And as people 
like to look sweet and pleasant, and be spoken of as 
kind and amiable, they are mostly ready to hear about 
good rules, and cultivate nice manners, so as to ap- 
pear well. Now we will see w^hether we can really get 
" hate " out out of the heart in that way. Let us take 
this clean cloth, and dip it into the clean water, and 
go to work. There, we have rubbed out " H," and 
have put in " L." Now what word have we .^ Yes, 
^' Late. " That is rather suggestive, isn't it 1 I hope it 
It may not be too late with this heart being made right ! 
would be dreadful to have to die with such a heart as 
this. 

Well, "Late" is not the word we want in 
place of " Hate," but another word of just the same 
number of letters. What is it } Yes, Love. A beau- 
tiful word; how much more lovely than Hate. Well, 
we have rubbed out " H," now we will rub out the 



lo8 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

next letter; what is it? Yes, ^*a"; now we have 
that out; and we write ^^ <? " in its place: "Lo." 
We are making progress. One more letter to be 
rubbed out, and the change is complete. O, dear chil- 
dren, what a beautiful thing is love! Open your heart 
to this sweet and benign presence, and, like a bird 
with soft downy plumage — but, dear me ! what has 
happened } While I have turned to congratulate you 
upon the progress we were making, the " Lo " has been 
rubbed out, and the " Ha " has come back, and 
" Hate " is in full possession. Well, this is extraordi- 
nary!" But let us not despair ! We will try one of 
these other rooms of the evil heart. 

Here is " Impurity." Now we have only to get rid 
of two letters, and we shall have " Purity. " That looks 
easy — let us try it. It ought not to be hard to convince 
any one if they cherish impurity in the heart, that, as a 
speck of rot will spread over an apple until it is all rotten, 
so this sin will make the heart rotten, and the life bad 
and unhappy. 

O, let us out with it! Dip the cloth in water, and 
rub off this capital " I"! Well, it is easier said than 
done, isn't it } I will have to put soap on my cloth, 
and rub the harder. There ! it is a job to get rid of 
capital " I." I don't know that I have got quite rid of 
him yet. But children, I will rub away, /think, that 
/by my determination; that / by my resolution; that 
/ by my education; that / by my own self respect; 

*A man is behind the board, with a cloth, and piece of chalk, 
to make these changes. 



Sermon 07t the Heart 109 

that /, children, by, in short, what /do, can get rid of /. 
Now, haven't I got him w^et down ? You may think 
that you see him there yet, and that he will come out 
quite plain again when he is dry. Perhaps he will. I 
am a little dubious about it myself. I am a good deal 
like the little girl in the old United Presbyterian 
Children's Primer. She had fallen among the briars, 
and scratched her face and torn her frock so badly 
that she feared no one at home would know her. She 
was comforted, however, and brightened up, as she 
thought of her little dog, and said: 

**If I be I, and I think I be, 
I've a dog at home, and he'll know me; 
\i\ be\^ he'll wag his tail; 
If I be not I, he'll howl and wail.'* 

But — dear me ! without waiting to get dry, the cap- 
ital " I " and the little *^ m " are back in place again, 
and all of our labor is lost ! 

Children, this is discouraging. As fast as I rub out 
a letter, there seems to be some one around here 
that is working against me, and the letter is placed 
back again. I believe we are working on the wrong 
line. We must find out who it is that is so interested 
in keeping these bad people in this heart, and go for 
him. Have any of you any idea who this is t 
" Satan V Well, I shouldn't wonder if that is so. See, 
here he is, right in the center of the heart, his name 
commencing wdth the snake letter " S "; how like a 
snake it looks, doesn't it } and look ! here is an opening 
from his big room, right to every other room, and tel- 



no Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

egraph wires connecting his office with every part of 
the heart ! It isn't strange that I couldn't get out any 
of his friends, is it ? He could put them back faster 
than I could get them out. How he must have been 
laughing at me all this while ! I might have spent a 
lifetime, and I never would have got one room clean 
while Satan held possession of the center. Well, do 
you know, I had a suspicion of this, and felt that I 
should have to commence with Satan, but to tell the 
truth, I was afraid to do so. The Bible describes 
Satan as " a roaring lion seeking whom he may de- 
vour " (I Peter, v: 8). It also calls him "Great 
Dragon," and " Old Serpent," and says he had power 
to deceive "the whole world" (Rev. xii: 9). The 
Bible also tells us that all the sons of men that have 
ever contended with him have been worsted. He over- 
came Adam in the garden, and Noah in the vineyard. 
He shut Moses out of the promised land, and dragged 
Saul from the throne. He led David into sin, and 
tempted Solomon, his son, to commit folly. Through 
love of sin he has secured dominion over the hearts of 
men, and he will fight bitterly before he will give up 
his throne. 

What shall we do, children ? Is there any way to 
caph Satan out of this heart t Is there any ' ' name given 
'rQ ' r heaven " whereby we may be saved t Has there 
ever been one whom Satan could not overcome by 
his temptations } Will that one undertake to fight for 
us.^ Will he meet this awful serpent and drive him 
away } Yes, blessed be God, there is such a one, 



Sermon on the Heart III 

" The lion of the tribe of JiidaJi, the root of David, 
hath prevailed'' (Rev. v: 5). Our Lord Jesus Christ 
by His death upon the cross has put away sin; and by 
His resurrection has conquered death. In His name 
sins are forgiven (Acts x: 43). In His name the 
Spirit of God comes into our hearts (Acts ii: 38). 
In His name Satan is cast out of the heart (Acts xvi: 
18), and will soon be cast out of heaven (Rev. xii: 9), 
and out of the world (Rev. xx: i, 2, 10). Ah, yes ! by 
this we shall conquer ! How foolish we were to have 
commenced without it ! 

Now, let us take another look at the heart and see 
how we can get Jesus in. You will notice that the 
door is held by " Unbelief. " Oh, the cunning of Satan ! 
He gets full possession of the heart, and then begins 
to torment those whom he has deluded, and when 
God's dear Son comes to save and deliver them, he 
fills them wath unbelief and they will not trust in Jesus; 
they will not believe His gracious word; they will not 
accept His deliverance. 

In Rev. iii: 20, we read: " Behold, I stand at the 
door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open tJie 
door, I will come in to him, andzvill sup with him, and 
he with me.'' 

Now notice in this word, that here is a house ^ is } 
the door closed, and Jesus is on the outside wrSee 
to come in. 

When you go to make a call upon some nice lady 
or gentleman living near you, you stand at the door 
and ring the bell, or knock upon the wood, until they 



1 1 2 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

come and unbar the door from the inside and invite 
you to come in. You would not think of coming with 
an axe and breaking down the door, to go in whether 
they wanted you to or not. That would not be the act 
of a friend but of an enemy. 

So the Lord Jesus can not force Himself into your 
heart. He comes as far as He can, and lets you 
know that He is there and what He has come for, 
and then yon must pull back the bolt, and turn the 
key, and unlatch the door, and say " Come in." 

I read of a little girl whose mother gave her a 
pretty card with this verse, and with this picture upon 
it. She was deeply interested in the explanation her 
mother gave of its meaning, and took her card with 
her to bed. The next morning she said, " Mamma, I 
lay awake a good while last night after you had heard 
me say my prayers, thinking of Jesus outside the door. 
And Mamma, I prayed to Him, O, so earnestly, that 
He would come into my heart, and stay there always ! 
and Mamma, I believe He has come in, and I am going 
to be His little girl." Now this is just the way that 
people, whether big people or little people, have to do. 
They must want Jesus to come in, and invite Him to 
come in, and He has said, if they do this, " / will 
come in,'' 

Now, while we have been talking about this text, 
this unhappy heart has been listening, and see ! the 
wire between Satan and the door of the heart is 
broken, and " Unbelief " disappears. " Faith " takes 
its place; the door of the heart swings open, Satan. 



Sermon on the Hea^^t 



113 



flees in terror, dJid Jesus takes his place in the center 
of the heart. 



/vANiTY 


FA 


XImpurity---^ 


^ 


N^EALOUSy^ 


DEC 


\ SELFIS 



TH 



Rride 



ENVY; 



5TR!FE> 



HINELSS 



SORROW 



Now notice that the wires used by Satan are under 
the control of Jesus, and that He has access to the 
various rooms of the heart. 

Surely we know what will now happen. These 
people that have been introduced and maintained 
by Satan, and who have made the poor heart so 
wretched and unhappy, will have to take their 
departure. When Jesus comes by His Spirit into 
the heart, He shows by the light of His presence 
the existence of the evil, and gives power to put it 
away. We never know how many queer things have 
collected in our cellars and garrets until we go through 
them with a brightly burning lamp. So we never 



114 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

know the evil that is in us until the Spirit of God comes 
and reveals it. 

Now, let us imagine the Lord Jesus gathering the 
beautiful members of His household of grace, and 
commissioning them to go and occupy the rooms of 
the heart, that have been used by his enemies. 

Meekness, Lowliness, Gentleness, Love, Purity, 
Goodness, Trust, Truth, Peace, Kindness, Joy, — the 
eleven beautiful sisters of Faith, are gathered together, 
and sent from the presence of Jesus, upon their mis 
sion. 

Now we see Lowliness coming with her sweet 
happy face to the marble steps and mahogany door of 
the abode of Pride. Lowliness rings the bell, and a 
stately footman in livery opens the door, and looks 
with astonishment on the kindly smiling face of this 
beautiful stranger, w^ho asks to see his mistress, 
Madame Pride. "Have you a card, Marm .^ " he 
says, " My mistress receives no one not of the highest 
position, and will demand who you are." "Please 
tell her that my name is Lowliness; and that I am a 
sister of Miss Meek, of a good Bethany family, of 
whom the Lord has spoken, when He said, ^ / am 
meek and lowly,' We have never needed cards to 
introduce us, for people everywhere know us by our 
faces. And won't yow please tell your mistress that 
the Lord Jesus has mewed into this heart, and that 
He has sent me to occupy this front bay window por- 
tion, and make you all happy V 

Away goes the astonished servant to find his mis- 
tress, and tell her of this wonderful arrival. 



Sermon on the Heart 1 1 5 

We can see Madame Pride, as she sits in silken 
robes and covered with jewels, talking with her bosom 
friends Madame Haughtiness, Madame Arrogance, 
Miss Conceit, the young Lord Vainglory and his com- 
panions, Mr. Foppish and Mr. Dude. They are dis- 
cussing the pedigree of Lord Vainglory's dog, and 
examining the coats-of-arms that Madame Pride has 
discovered belonged to her remote ancestors. 

" O, Marm!" says the disturbed footman, ''The 
strangest thing has happened, Marm ! the most beautiful 
creature, Marm, that you ever saw, Marm, is in the hall, 
Marm ! and she says, Marm, that she has no card, 
but that her name is Lowliness, and that she belongs 
to a well-known and ancient family called ^ Meek and 
Lowly, ' and that the Lord Jesus has sent her to occupy 
this house, Marm, and that all who are not willing 
to be lowly must at once leave the place, Marm !" 

" Oh, horror !" says Madame Pride. " Did you 
ever, Madame Haughtiness .^ Did you ever, Madame 
Arrogance } Did you ever. Lord Vainglory 1 I be- 
come lowly ! Never, never ! 

^^ Thomas, order the carriage. Tell Jane to pack up 
all my dresses and my jewelry. Lord Vainglory, will 
you give me your arm } and Mr. Foppish and Mr. 
Dude, will you bring the poodles, please } and Miss 
Conceit, will you bring the coats-of-arms, and all the 
novels, please } and let us all go together, and leave 
this Miss Lowliness to make the best of life without 
the society of her betters." And away they go, and 
Lowliness enters in, with gentle smiles, and looks of 
love, and with the fragrance of violets upon her robes. 



1 1 6 Gospel Pictured and Story Sei'inons 

Children, pride does not mean the actual possession 
of all of these things, but it exists in the loving them, 
and the longing for them, as if they were the great 
things to live for. There may be the fine home, the 
wealth, and the servants, with Lowliness at home, and 
using it all; and there may be the little house, with 
no wealth, and Pride ruling the heart. 

Now let us see what occurs on the other side of the 
heart, where Madame Pride's first cousin. Miss Van- 
ity, lives. Sweet Miss Meekness, with a bunch of 
pansies in her hand, has come to the door. Miss 
Vanity has just put on a new dress, and has had her 
hair nicely banged, and has six rings on one hand and 
eight on the other, with bracelets on each wrist, and 
earrings for each ear, and can not resist the tempta- 
tion to come to the door herself, that she may be more 
quickly admired by her visitor, and that passers-by 
may admire her too. " Come right in," she says, as 
she shakes the ribbons on her head, rustles her silk 
dress and makes a tinkling sound with her earrings. 
" Come right in. You have heard, I suppose, of my 
new dresses from Paris, and of my pearls and diamonds, 
and of how lovely I appear in them .^ Oh, yes; I 
shall be pleased to show them to you. People that 
are much admired must expect to be put to trouble." 

" O, please," says gentle Meekness, "I have not 
come to see the dresses or the jewelry. My name is 
Meekness. My sister, Lowliness, has just moved in 
where your cousin, Madame Pride, has lived. You 
know our Lord Jesus has taken possession of this 



Sermon on the Heart 1 1 7 

heart, and He has sent me to Hve here. Won't you 
change your name and stay, too ?" " Change my 
name ? Never ! What a piece of vanity I w^ould be 
to think of such a thing ! I belong to one of the old- 
est and most numerous families on earth. A Vanity is 
always a Vanity and always will be a Vanity. No 
Meekness was ever known to have married a Vanity; 
and I am glad to say no Vanity ever married a Meek- 
ness, or lived in the same room with them. O, you 
can have my place. If Jesus is to reign in this 
heart and my cousin, Madame Pride, and her friends 
have gone, it is time that I should go, too." And 
Vanity disappears, and Meekness takes the room oppo- 
site Lowliness. 

Next to the room Vanity has occupied, Anger has 
made his home. He and Vanity have had many a bit- 
ter quarrel, and Anger and his wife, who was formerly 
Miss Quarrelsome, and his children. Wrath, Rage, 
Fury, Revenge, Impatience, and Irritation, have made 
the heart very unhappy. Gentleness has come along 
with Meekness, and has knocked at Anger's door, 
while her sister went to the house of Vanity. 

The children were so noisy that it was a long 
time before the gentle knock of Gentleness was 
heard. Then Mrs. Anger, with her face flushed, 
and anger on her brow from disputing with her 
husband and boxing the ears of her children, 
opens the door and says angrily, " And who may 
you be, around knocking at people's doors and dis- 
turbing the peace of a quiet family V " Please," says 



! 1 8 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

Gentleness with quiet, gentle tones, ''^ Jesns has come 
into this heart and my name is Gentleness, and I am 
come to live here." ^^ To live JiercT' screams Mrs. 
Anger. " Do you hear that, old Anger } if you 
had the spirit of a man you would get your gun ! 
Come, Wrath, Rage, Impatience, Irritation, and all 
the rest of you, let us pack up and leave the neighbor- 
hood. This is no place for us now." And off the 
noisy troop go, and Gentleness comes quietly in, and 
a great peace settles down upon this part of the heart. 

In the meantime, on the other side of the heart, in 
the room next to where Madame Pride had lived, a 
very hateful family, named Hate, had their home. To 
this door Love came and knocked for admission. 

O, what a clamor was going on within ! Mrs. 
Hate was telling Mr. Hate that she hated him, 
and was sorry that she had ever married him; and 
Mr. Hate was saying loudly, " You don't hate me any 
worse than I hate you. Your mother was a Snarl 
and your father a Grozvl, and I hate myself for 
ever having made you a Hate." Then Mrs. Hate 
took the poker and went for Mr. Hate, screaming, 
" I'll teach you to make fun of my father and mother! 
You miserable old Hate ! You know very well that 
your father's name was LoatJisonie, and your mother's 
name Repulsive, and that more detestable people never 
lived ! " And then Mr. Hate tipped over the table, 
with all of the dishes upon it, and plates and pitchers 
were smashed in pieces, and Odious Hate, the oldest 
boy, pulled the hair of 111 Will Hate, the oldest girl. 



Sermon on the Heart 1 1 9 

and she began to scream with her mother; and 
Hideous, the dog, bit Ugly, the cat, and cat and dog 
added to the dreadful noise, — when suddenly Love, 
unable to make them hear, opened the door, and 
stood among them ! O, how ashamed they all were 
at the appearance they presented ! Mrs. Hate began 
to cry, and said, ^^ She wished she was dead." Mr. 
Hate stood up the table in a shame-faced kind of 
way, while Odious, the boy, called Hideous away 
from Ugly, and told him to keep quiet. Then Love 
spoke up and told them how Jesus had come into the 
heart, and how He loved them all, and had died for 
their sins, and how He had sent her to live in that 
room, and to make them happy and good. Then Mr. 
Hate said, " As for my part, I would like to get rid of 
my hateful old name, and be a better man, and I am 
willing to be ruled by Love." And Mrs. Hate said, 
" If Jesus in His mercy is willing to forgive me, and to 
save me from my dreadful temper, I would gladly accept 
Him, and do my best to live a different life. " And 
Odious said he was sorry he pulled 111 Will's hair, and 
that he wouldn't do so again. O, what a change 
Love- made ! The curtains were lifted, and the sun- 
shine came streaming in; the children ran out and 
brought in some flowers for the mantels. Mrs. Hate 
swept up the room, and put the furniture in order. 
Mr. Hate asked his wife's forgiveness, and wondered 
that they had ever lived as they had; and the dog. 
Hideous, wagged his tail, and the cat. Ugly, purred, 
as Love patted their heads, and brought them 
together. 




God is Love." 



Sermon on the Heart 121 

It was not long before Love, having brought to 
them a new nature, gave them also new names, and 
all that was represented by the old names was for- 
ever driven out. 

Now," in the next room to Hate lived a singular 
single maiden, named Envy. Green blinds were on 
the outside ; green shades were on the inside ; green paper 
was on the walls, and green coverings were over the 
furniture. So everything about Miss Envy, even to 
the color of her dress, the ribbons in her hair, and the 
shade of her eyes, was all green. To her door came 
clear-eyed, broad-browed and large-hearted Goodness. 
She knocked at the door, and Envy herself came and 
asked her errand. With goodness shining from her 
eyes, making melody in her voice, and blossoming in 
her smile, she said, ^* O, don't you know.? Jesus 
has come into this heart, and Hate and Pride and 
Vanity and Anger have all gone away, and I am come 
from Jesus to occupy this room. Won't you change 
your name, and stay with me } " " Stay with you, with 
all of my relatives gone } Not I, indeed ! The idea ! 
What comfort could there be for me with Love and 
Loivliness for neighbors, and Jesus all the time looking 
at me } No, let me go quickly. I want to overtake 
Madame Pride and Vanity as soon as possible. I envy 
you your disposition, and your nice complexion, and 
your good fitting clothes. I envy everything about 
you that is worth envying, but I know I can not stay 
a single day in your company. " And away goes Envy, 
her green ribbons floating in the air, as she runs after 
Madame Pride. 



122 Gospel Pi ct teres and Story Sermons 

Children, there is a beautiful text in Ro. xii: 21: 
" Be not overcome of evil^ but overcome evil with 
goodr 

Let Goodness come into the heart, and Envy and all 
other evil will flee away. 

Here is a simple story that will teach you what this 
means. 

How Janie Settled It. 

" Here comes Mamma ! " said Janie. " Oh, 
Mamma, must I save some of my candy for Grace t " 

*' I think a good little sister would." 

" But Grace didn't give me any of hers yesterday." 

" Didn't she > How did you like that } " 

" I didn't like it at all. And I want to make her 
not like it, too, because I think she was mean." 

" Dear, dear ! and is Mamma to have two mean 
little girls, then } " 

Janie looked at her mother, and was quiet a 
minute. Then she ran and threw her arms around 
her neck, and said, " No, no. Mamma dear ! You 
'shall not have any mean little girl at all ! I guess 
Grace forgot; and I'll go and give her some of my 
candy now, so she won't ever forget again ! " 

" I think that is the way to make her remember," 
she said. " And I am glad to have two kind little 
girls." 

And so the good work of cleansing the heart goes 
on. 



Sermon on the Heart 



123 



Peace came to the room where Strife had dwelt, 
and Strife moved out. TrntJi came and knocked at 
the door where Deceit lurked with closed shutters, 
and under all sorts of false names, and Deceit, with 
^all of his children. Cheating, Trickery, Sham, Little- 
lies, Slander and Tattlesome, went out the back door 
and disappeared in the darkness. Purity got into the 
room where Impurity had dwelt, and by rubbing out 
two letters, brought a wonderful change there. Trust 
came into the place that Jealousy had occupied. 
Kindness took the place of Selfishness. 




The Good Heart. 



And then, from every part of the happy heart, I 
heard a sweet chorus of voices repeating: 



124 Gospel Pictures and Story Sermons 

" The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, 
temperance : against such there is no law. And 
they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh 
with the passions and the lusts thereof.'' 

And I rejoiced greatly as I looked upon the heart 
made as our Lord Jesus would have it. 

Now, children, which heart will you choose ? 

I once read of a boy who had a remarkable dream. 
He thought that the richest man in town came to him 
and said, ^^ I am tired of my house and grounds. 
Come and take care of them, and I will give them to 
you." Then came an honored judge, and said, " I 
want you to take my place. I am weary of being in 
court day after day. I will give you my seat on the 
bench if you will do my work." Then the doctor 
proposed that he take his extensive practice and let 
him rest, and so on. At last up shambled Old Tommy, 
and said, " I'm wanted to fill a drunkard's grave. I 
have come to see if you will take my place in these 
saloons and on these streets." 

This is a dream that is not all a dream. For every 
boy in this land to-day who lives to grow up, some 
position is waiting, as surely as if rjch man, judge, 
doctor, or drunkard stood ready to hand over his 
place at once. Which will you choose, boys } There 
are pulpits to be filled by God-fearing ministers, and 
thousands of other honorable places; but there are 
also prison cells and drunkard's graves, Which will 
you choose ? 



Sermon on the Heart 125 

Remember that no good place on earth can be filled 
except you have the " Good Heart;" and that the bad 
places on earth are sure to be filled by you if you have 
the " Bad Heart." 

Remember, also, that your eternal welfare is deter- 
mined by your choice. If you possess the " Good 
Heart," your home v^ill be with Jesus in Heaven for- 
ever and ever. If you possess a " Bad Heart," your 
eternal home must be in the world of the lost, with 
the enemies of God and the servants of sin. O, let the 
earnest prayer of every one of you be — " Create in me a 
clean hearty O God. " And may the Lord Jesus, as you 
make the prayer, come in and dwell with you forever- 
more. Amen. 



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Prevailing Prayer: A Series of Addresses on Prayer. 48th 

Thousand. Paper covers 15 

"It is most searching and powerful in its appeals to the conscience, and 

abounds in well-told incidents."— Zaj>/ Preacher. 

"The name of the author of this book is sufficient to recommend it without 

any words from us. It is essentially a volume for Christian people'"— 77j^ 

Preachers' Analyst 

Twelve Select Sermons. Revised by Himself 200th Thousand. 

Paper covers 15 

"Mr. Moody's happy style, abounding in vStrikicg anecdotes and illustra- 
tions, makes it a moat readable and convincing volume."— 77z^ Watchman. 

The Way and the Word. 165 th Thousand. i6rno, paper.. .10 

A neat little volume containing the treatise on Mr. Moodj^'s favorite topic, 
"Regeneration;" also, his thoughts on Bible study, the whole prefaced by a 
personal introduction. 

Moody in Chicago; or, The World's Fair Gospel Campaign. 

An Account of the Evangelistic Work in Chicago and Vicinity during the 
time of the World's Columbian Exposition, conducted by D. L. Moody 

and his Associates. By Rev. H. B. Hartzler. i2mo., cloth $ .50 

Send stamped envelope for special terms on large quantities for free distribution. 



Address, The Bible Institute Colportage Association 

350 LA SALLE AVE., CHICAGO. 



The Colportage Library 

Issued seini monthly by the Bible Institute Colportage Associa- 
tion, 250 La Salle Ave , Chicago. Price |2.25 per annum, post- 
paid: single numbers, iS cents each postpaid. 

Under the above title the Bible Institute Colportage Asso- 
ciatioji is issuing a series of books by well-known Christian 
authpr5, including Spurgeon, Moody, Talmage, Chapman, 
Whittle, and others. The issue commenced March iSth, and 
is followed semi-monthly by others. 

All of Grace, by C. H. Spurgeon. 
The Way to God, by D. L. Moody. 
Pleasure and Profit In Bible Study, 

by D. L. Moody. 
Life Warfare and Victory, by D. W. Whittle. 
Heaven, by D. L. Moody. 
Prevailing Prayer, by D. L. Moody. 
The Way of Life, marked out by McNeill, 
Talmage, Mills, Chapman, and others. 
Secret Power, by D. L. Moody. 
To the Work, by D. L, Moody. 
According to Promise, by C. H. Spurgeon. 
Bible Characters, by D. L. Moody. 
Gospel Pictures and Stories, 

by D. W. Whittle. 
**And Peter," and other Sermons, 

by J. Wilbur Chapman. 
Select Poems. 



NP. 


1. 


No. 


3. 


No. 


3- 


No. 


4. 


No. 


5. 


No. 


6. 


No. 


7. 


No. 


8. 


No. 


9. 


No. 


lO. 


No. 


11. 


No. 


12. 


No. 


13. 


No, 


14. 



The Bible Institute Colportage Association 

Was founded for the purpose of issuing good sound Christian literature 
at low prices. The work is purely undenominational in its character, 
and the sympathy and co-operation of all Christians is invited to help 
along the work of counteracting the influence of the vicious literature 
now being so widely circulated. 

S^nd stamped envelope for complete catalogues, which in- 
clude books on many topics,— all helpful and all at specially reduced 
prices. 

Special terms to Colporters and for Tree Distribution. 
Address, THE BIBLE INSTITUTE COLPORTAGE ASSOCIATION 

HkadquaRTCRS: 260 LA SALLE AVE.. CHICAGO. 
Eastcrn Depot: EAST NORTHFIELD. MASS. 
Canada Dkpot: 140 YONGE ST., TORONTO. 



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